perkyanda's reviews
33 reviews

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Adorable, cute, very fast read. More of a novella than a book, really? I read the ebook version so i don’t actually have a super great grasp of the length but honestly  this just felt like a longish short story?  Anyway i loved Toadling and Halim. I loved the whole thing. Such a cozy quick little fairytale. Like a book snack. 

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What an ending! Damn!!!!

For most of the book i was totally in, curious , engaged, liking but not loving it, solid 4 stars. But oh my god, that ending sealed the deal!!! 

It’s a dystopian novel about memory and love and community and meaning and who we are with as bit of magic. Right up my alley even if it didn’t just kill with the ending. And it works have been great with the ending i thought it would have! But damn!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Adventure!

Real review to come at some point when i don’t have to worry about accidentally spoiling people but all i’ll say now is i want to know how much of this was plotted in advance of the first book.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Just finished my second read of this book, in anticipation of the release at the end of the month. I don’t know that i can say this is a great book, but it does as great job of tapping into everything you’d want from a dragon college book if you grew up on Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey, and when younger, Tamora Pierce and Patricia C. Wrede. It’s familiar and cozy and exciting in the best way and fits perfectly with all the books i loved in middle and high school.

If you have to pick between popular romantasy series featuring wyverns and magic,  I’d choose this one over the one with fairies any day.

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

adventurous slow-paced

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

2.75

It’s fine. Conventional plodding ya fantasy romance.

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous funny slow-paced

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

3.0

This is the most disappointing of the crescent city books and at times it was a slog. Decidedly more reminiscent of her ACOTAR and TOG series; less fun mystery , more high stakes save the world junk, everyone is overpowered but especially our female lead, mates mates mates nonsense, eye rolling deus ex machina stuff. But there, I’ve read all the SJM novels now. Keeping up with culture or something. 

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous funny lighthearted 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? Yes

3.5

Look, this book is trash, but it’s fun trash. I have nothing off substance to say about it. 

So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison

dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

Extremely slow start and hard to get into, but i actually really loved this one by the end. I’m a sucker for deep non sexual pseudo romantic female friendships that border on almost being relationships,  just because they remind me of my most unhealthy and formative friendship in my college years. I also love a book that has a 30 something or older female lead grappling with aging in a sexist appearance focused world. 

As to plot, is a slightly more realistic version of so many teen/ya vampire books i read like 25 years ago. I liked the tortured romance and the struggles the women had with their shitty LTRs.  I loved the gross dingy details of the settings. I loved the one character being cheerful eurotrash. The orgy was fairly hilarious.

I was just a fun light read. 

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Not great but definitely surprisingly enjoyable. I don’t read as lot of urban fantasy or things focusing on magic/tech mixed worlds, so this was definitely outside of my norm. This is my favorite of the maas books I’ve read so far, which isn’t hard since i Disney like ACOTAR or TOG. The start of this was slow and tedious and annoying, but once we got to the mystery it was fun. The tension was better than the over the top romances in the other books. I really liked that the platonic almost romance friendship between Bryce and Danika was such a driving feature, because those stupid enmeshed college friendships that practically replace dating have an outsized role in development sometimes (was literally reminiscing with a college friend over text the other night about my enmeshed friendship within our small group)  

The big identity reveal was incredibly predictable, as was the hypaxia reveal. I didn’t figure out the horn reveal which is damn shocking to me, so mad props. 
I liked the acknowledgment in this book that gay people exist and that like half the major supporting characters were gay. Helps make up for the major cis heteronormativity of the other two series. 

Fave character was probably Ruhn. Though i refuse to believe that even a 75 year old who looks 23 would still act like a 23 year old. The maturity and development stall out and the multi hundred year relationship age gaps still really irritate me. 

The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Look, there’s nothing groundbreaking or new about psychological women’s horror where the issue is mental health or possession, but this is a short, tight, easy to read novella, as smooth as the glasses of wine our protagonist keeps guzzling the whole time. I love an unlikeable female lead and while i wouldn’t hate her, a whole lot of people wouldn’t be fond of her casual attitudes towards sex, relationships, drinking, and family. There is a lot of great imagery, and a ton of unanswered questions, so this is really more of a vibes based read, but that’s fine with me, i don’t have to know the significance of spirals and cats. The ending was a bit abrupt, but ultimately decent.