pearsbooks's reviews
92 reviews

The Blood Traitor by Lynette Noni

adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

dark hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.0

oops finished this almost a week ago

Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

I have quite honestly no idea what I thought about this... it was predictable but still left me surprised, and the final chapter had my jaw on the floor. 

I hated both of the main characters and honestly the prose was overly rich in adjectives which was just annoying but then the twist at the end changed the way i felt about the beginning. 

I truly couldn't decide if I was hate reading or if i was rapt ??????? 

it was also weirdly prudish to say it was a romance and horror... there weren't any graphic descriptions of any of the uh. juicy bits. which prompted a lot of thoughts about how "spicy book" culture is ruining the art of the sex scene in an otherwise normal novel (because they're too scared to be branded "spicy" ugh). still I was kinda grateful that the body horror wasn't more graphic because I was squirming a little LOL. 

anyway haha what the fuck

Frontier by Grace Curtis

adventurous hopeful tense slow-paced

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

3.5

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

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? It's complicated

3.75

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

adventurous funny hopeful 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

3.5

So fun !!

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

so grizzly 🤩

dark and violent and relentless and with actual proper real well done enemies to lovers ‼️‼️ what a thrill

deducted 1 star because while the writing was clever and ava reid can really turn a phrase, once she's turned one she's really proud of she just repeats it over and over and fuckin over !! yes I get it "the pale column of his throat," and even just words... someone was "cowed" about 4 times in 2 pages. she said 'sibilant' so much the word has lost all meaning. 
some of the dialogue was quite repetitive too, hashing out the same arguments we already heard and I think the book could have benefitted from being shorter... honestly though these are things the editor should be catching 🥴

STILL. wow. unbelievable that this was her debut. loved it thoroughly.

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

the start was SO GOOD. literally until

'Sky' left with Wilder's manuscript

I was absolutely enthralled and I loved the characters and I was so so into some good interesting and entrancing mystery/thriller... and then it all got so meta and it was too back-and-forth. Unless you're specifically a fan of books where you're unable to trust things you read earlier in a book this one is gonna be a let down. it was just so bogged down in all the different layers of stuff going on and perspectives and it just ruined my opinions on the characters and my interest in the plot aaaa so annoying. 

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

oh my god that was INCREDIBLE. so fun and mysterious. the setting and the world building was so vivid and rich and the characters were just exceptional. 

knocked off .25 for the attempted enemies to lovers but they were enemies for like 20 pages before they softened towards each other 🫤 and also because she used the phrase "a muscle feathered in his jaw" about 6 times and it pissed me off. also the word decorous like a million times. 

other than that this was perfection. honestly - perfection !! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

the mentions of SA and rape aren't graphic, but they're frequent and important to the plot so pls be cautious