pellepanda's reviews
220 reviews

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

1.5

[ARC received via Netgalley]

Before anything else: this cover looks very AI. The wings, the paws, the neck, the scales, the way the title blends with the background.

Medra is isekai'd after violently dying and finds herself in a new world where vampires are the top bosses. She's found by the dark and blonde prince of the vampires who tells her she has the mark of a rider, and thus, he takes her to the king of the vampires (aka his uncle). Scary uncle Viktor binds them using magic, and then the prince and the prisoner go to... college?

I really didn't like this book. Medra is strong. She speaks her mind, and she is aware the world is unfair. The MMC, Blake Drakharrow, is a brooding and hateful vampire, but we get his POV, where the author tries to show us that he has soft sides. The two supposedly have a lot of tension, but that's very tell (they repeat it. All. The. Time.) and not a lot of show. A lot of the dialogue was so unnatural that I completely lost any crumb of immersion. MINOR SPOILER WARNING: One of the worst examples I can think of this is when Medra's bff says something like "you might wonder why we haven't told you about this before, it is because we didn't think about it", then proceed to tell how she's been asking around about said thing because of Medra.

More positive (depending on your tastes): it's very formulatic and predictable. The tropes are troping, and it's entertaining enough. It's like a more trashy Fourth Wing, kinda like CoHo fantasy. The language and flow are easy enough to make it a quicker read.

1.5 ⭐️

The Last Secret Agent: The Extraordinary Story of a WW2 Spy in Her Own Words by Pippa Latour

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

[ARC received via Netgalley]

The Last Secret Agent tells the story of World War 2 veteran Pippa Latour in her own voice. She takes us through her early life and childhood, up to the end of the war. It is a detail rich description with both the emotions and facts of war from someone who served as a spy.

Books like this are so important. We get a glimpse of the life of a spy in a warzone, while it's also helping to fill the gap on women's history. It tells a lot about what "normal" days looked like during the war, the methods that were used to share information, and the people who fought in the resistance. A very fascinating read, with a great narrator that I felt conveyed her voice in a respectful manner.

Content Warnings