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paperbacks_and_planners's reviews
662 reviews
Everland by Wendy Spinale
3.0
I went into this with no expectations and ended up really enjoying the book. The steampunk, dystopian world was really original. And the way the Peter Pan characters/story was woven in was creative.
Overall the story wasn't anything earth shattering though. The characters were very YA typical - meek, average girl meets attractive, strong-willed boy... And the I wasn't totally buying into the love story.
But overall the book was a fun read. Definitely going to continue the series.
Overall the story wasn't anything earth shattering though. The characters were very YA typical - meek, average girl meets attractive, strong-willed boy... And the I wasn't totally buying into the love story.
But overall the book was a fun read. Definitely going to continue the series.
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
3.0
3.75 stars - I'm getting really specific with this one.
I love Alice in Wonderland and will give almost anything related to it a read. I had really high hopes for this book because I LOVED the Lunar Chronicles and it was a Queen of Hearts story. Unfortunately I was left a little disappointed.
My biggest issue was the first 200-ish pages felt painfully drawn out. We spent so much time hearing the same details over and over - how childish the king is, how ugly Margret is, the color of the jokers eyes, how delicious Cath's baked goods are, what store they want to buy.... It got so long winded that I almost DNF'd this book about 3 times. My second issue was, overall the story was pretty 1 dimensional. The only thing that moved the plot along was the forbidden romance. And while certain details were really clever, I wanted more from the story/characters.
BUT, the last half of the book totally captivated me. I became really invested and needed to know how the stories played out. And even though I knew the ending - evil Queen of Hearts - I still found myself rooting for Cath and Jest.
I love Alice in Wonderland and will give almost anything related to it a read. I had really high hopes for this book because I LOVED the Lunar Chronicles and it was a Queen of Hearts story. Unfortunately I was left a little disappointed.
My biggest issue was the first 200-ish pages felt painfully drawn out. We spent so much time hearing the same details over and over - how childish the king is, how ugly Margret is, the color of the jokers eyes, how delicious Cath's baked goods are, what store they want to buy.... It got so long winded that I almost DNF'd this book about 3 times. My second issue was, overall the story was pretty 1 dimensional. The only thing that moved the plot along was the forbidden romance. And while certain details were really clever,
Spoiler
like how the entire story had been prophesied by the SistersBUT, the last half of the book totally captivated me. I became really invested and needed to know how the stories played out. And even though I knew the ending - evil Queen of Hearts - I still found myself rooting for Cath and Jest.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
4.0
Maybe closer to 3.5 but I'm rounding up.
The thing I was most surprised/impressed with was how well this story has held up despite being written almost 100 years ago.
I've decided to read all the Poirot novels in order, so it was a lot fun seeing his origin story.
I really enjoyed this quick mystery read.
The thing I was most surprised/impressed with was how well this story has held up despite being written almost 100 years ago.
I've decided to read all the Poirot novels in order, so it was a lot fun seeing his origin story.
I really enjoyed this quick mystery read.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
3.0
I'm officially giving this 2.5 stars. But I rounded it up to the 3 since I didn't hate this book, I was just really disappointed. This was just... fine. All of the hype definitely had my expectations high so that played a factor of course. And sadly it just didn't live up for me.
Per usual, I'm gonna break this down into lists of things I liked and didn't like...
What I liked:
1. Jesper and Wylan - I was shipping it.
2. The heist concept. I love the premise of a ragtag group of criminals trying to break into and rob an impenetrable fortress. I will always watch that movie or read that book.
3. The Grisha magic system. I loved the magic system in the Shadow and Bone Trilogy and I still loved it in this.
Unfortunately that's about all I really enjoyed...
What I didn't love:
1. The pacing of this book always felt off to me. I felt like the build up would drag on and on but then action scenes were blunt and over quickly.
2. The age of the characters was absolutely unbelievable and really detracted from my ability to like or care about them. The characters were described between the ages of 16 and 18 but ALL of them read like late 20/early 30 year olds. They had all this massive life experience, strong reputations, badass fighting skills, tangled histories, criminal empires, etc. And the discrepancy of their age versus how they spoke and acted took away from my ability to believe in the story and characters.
3. Piggy backing off of that.. some of the characters were so over the top that they felt like caricatures. Kaz was probably the biggest offender of this for me. His swallowing and repeated regurgitation of lock picks without damage to his digestive system was so absurd I actually yelled out loud as I read it. It got to be a lot sometimes.
4. The amount of unexplained, made up words. This may be more of a personal reading preference but I really don't like large amounts of made up words in novels. I understand this is a made up world, with many different made up languages, but I would get so lost in conversations because I didn't know the meaning of half the words used. I don't like to be expected to remember the meanings of dozens of made up words. At least give me a definition list at the back or something.
5. The changes in POV. I usually love multi perspective books, but the combination of multi POV and 3rd person narrative just didn't work for me. It changed so frequently, and often the start of each new chapter would recap what happened in the previous but from another POV. Which just added to my issues with the pacing.
6. There were SO many story arcs! You were thrust into this world with multiple main characters and each of them had some mysterious and dramatic past. But you weren't told any of them. So from the 3rd chapter you had like 5 open story arcs.
7. Character introductions. I was not a fan of how characters were introduced at all. I feel like the intention was to create suspense/mystery around the characters (like with the many, many backstories). But it just left me confused and disconnected. My main example for this is Pekka Rollins. His name gets thrown around right away in the opening of the book. Kaz is talking about his hatred for this character but the reader has no idea who he is. And it took chapters for anything to be revealed about who he is - nonetheless his connection to Kaz. And by the time it was revealed, I was over it and felt nothing about him. And on top of it, we only got Kaz's memories of him for 98% of the book. It wasn't until the final chapter that this "big bad" even had his own lines. It just left me feeling nothing about his character.
I do already own the duology and want to know how the story wraps up, so I am planning on reading the second book. Overall I didn't hate this - but my enjoyment was hindered by some execution tactics that just didn't work for me. I can absolutely see why so many people love this. It's just unfortunately not my favorite.
Per usual, I'm gonna break this down into lists of things I liked and didn't like...
What I liked:
1. Jesper and Wylan - I was shipping it.
2. The heist concept. I love the premise of a ragtag group of criminals trying to break into and rob an impenetrable fortress. I will always watch that movie or read that book.
3. The Grisha magic system. I loved the magic system in the Shadow and Bone Trilogy and I still loved it in this.
Unfortunately that's about all I really enjoyed...
What I didn't love:
1. The pacing of this book always felt off to me. I felt like the build up would drag on and on but then action scenes were blunt and over quickly.
2. The age of the characters was absolutely unbelievable and really detracted from my ability to like or care about them. The characters were described between the ages of 16 and 18 but ALL of them read like late 20/early 30 year olds. They had all this massive life experience, strong reputations, badass fighting skills, tangled histories, criminal empires, etc. And the discrepancy of their age versus how they spoke and acted took away from my ability to believe in the story and characters.
3. Piggy backing off of that.. some of the characters were so over the top that they felt like caricatures. Kaz was probably the biggest offender of this for me. His swallowing and repeated regurgitation of lock picks without damage to his digestive system was so absurd I actually yelled out loud as I read it. It got to be a lot sometimes.
4. The amount of unexplained, made up words. This may be more of a personal reading preference but I really don't like large amounts of made up words in novels. I understand this is a made up world, with many different made up languages, but I would get so lost in conversations because I didn't know the meaning of half the words used. I don't like to be expected to remember the meanings of dozens of made up words. At least give me a definition list at the back or something.
5. The changes in POV. I usually love multi perspective books, but the combination of multi POV and 3rd person narrative just didn't work for me. It changed so frequently, and often the start of each new chapter would recap what happened in the previous but from another POV. Which just added to my issues with the pacing.
6. There were SO many story arcs! You were thrust into this world with multiple main characters and each of them had some mysterious and dramatic past. But you weren't told any of them. So from the 3rd chapter you had like 5 open story arcs.
7. Character introductions. I was not a fan of how characters were introduced at all. I feel like the intention was to create suspense/mystery around the characters (like with the many, many backstories). But it just left me confused and disconnected. My main example for this is Pekka Rollins. His name gets thrown around right away in the opening of the book. Kaz is talking about his hatred for this character but the reader has no idea who he is. And it took chapters for anything to be revealed about who he is - nonetheless his connection to Kaz. And by the time it was revealed, I was over it and felt nothing about him. And on top of it, we only got Kaz's memories of him for 98% of the book. It wasn't until the final chapter that this "big bad" even had his own lines. It just left me feeling nothing about his character.
Spoiler
I wasn't left shocked that Kaz teamed up with him. Because I don't know him as a character. I have no connection or emotion attached to him. I just nothing him.I do already own the duology and want to know how the story wraps up, so I am planning on reading the second book. Overall I didn't hate this - but my enjoyment was hindered by some execution tactics that just didn't work for me. I can absolutely see why so many people love this. It's just unfortunately not my favorite.
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
4.0
This was such a unique and amazing read! The story is told through interviews with an unknown man and personal journal recordings. And it worked so well! It perfectly added to the suspense and mystery.
I was worried I wouldn't connect with the characters as well though this format but I totally did! And that cliff hanger!
But I think my favorite part of this story was the realistic quality it had. This entire story felt so possible. Neuvel did such an amazing job of weaving science and politics with the fictional plot.
Can't wait to pick up the next books. I would totally recommend this for anyone into Sci-fy.
I was worried I wouldn't connect with the characters as well though this format but I totally did! And that cliff hanger!
But I think my favorite part of this story was the realistic quality it had. This entire story felt so possible. Neuvel did such an amazing job of weaving science and politics with the fictional plot.
Can't wait to pick up the next books. I would totally recommend this for anyone into Sci-fy.
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
3.0
EDIT: After sitting on this for a bit, I've decided to lower this to a 3 star. This story was still entertaining for start to finish, but I just found that as time went, this left no real impact on me. After reading some amazing books this month, full of worlds and characters I still think about, I realized I forgot I even read this... It's unfortunately just not that memorable for me. I do still plan to continue the series though.
For the first 3/4 of this book, I thought this was just OK. It was a unique, good story, but I wasn't in love. The format is really cool and works for the story, but I found it difficult to keep track of side characters or really connect/care about them. Which definitely detracted from some the "hard hitting" moments. Because I didn't care/remember the characters, their deaths weren't shocking or heartbreaking.
But I did like the final twist.
For the first 3/4 of this book, I thought this was just OK. It was a unique, good story, but I wasn't in love. The format is really cool and works for the story, but I found it difficult to keep track of side characters or really connect/care about them. Which definitely detracted from some the "hard hitting" moments. Because I didn't care/remember the characters, their deaths weren't shocking or heartbreaking.
But I did like the final twist