rainbowofcrazy's reviews
269 reviews

Captain America: Sam Wilson, Vol. 1: Not My Captain America by Paul Renaud, Nick Spencer, Daniel Acuña

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.25

I enjoyed this, especially with Sam’s role and how the world sees him. He is not Steve Rogers and wants to be his own Cap and I admire him for that. The storyline got weird though. It gave me the whole Princess and the Frog vibes, where the character gets stuck in a different body for a good chunk of the story. Didn’t care for that and I felt like it didn’t add anything to the main story. 

The Witchstone by Henry H. Neff

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

I loved this book! This book made me thoroughly laugh from beginning to end. Laszlo was hysterical and his banter with Maggie and Lump (best name ever, btw) was a joy. Demons be sassy! The humour blended perfectly with a lot of heart and a fascinating story. We have demons and magical beings and curses and adventures and a touch of horror that caught me off guard. (but spoilers!)

I adored the characters and I loved how their relationships grew along the way – without any romance. YAY FRIENDSHIPS. (As someone that has read a lot of romance heavy books over the last year, this was super refreshing.) The writing kept me invested, and kept me guessing at what Laszlo’s true intentions were – heck, the intentions of all of the different demons, because can you ever really trust a demon?

Good pacing, great writing, nice touches of feels, and lots of laughs. Highly recommend this one, and I would sign up with a sequel sogoddamnfast. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Sexual assault

Questland by Carrie Vaughn
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.

Literally forced myself to get to 20% before bailing. How can an island with fantasy creatures be so.. dull. Maybe it was the characters. I couldn't tell any of them apart. No one felt particular interesting. The narrator with this story wasn't working for me either. 

Y: The Last Man Book Four by Brian K. Vaughan

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

Woo more twists and turns and reveals with this volume. We get some interesting backstory with some of the characters and fun reunions. Loved it! 

The Fox & Little Tanuki, Volume 1 by Mi Tagawa, Mi Tagawa

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

I could not resist the cute cover. However the characters and story didn’t quite interest me as much as I was hoping. This is probably more for a younger audience so I might not continue (sort of spoiler alert: the first volume ends on a slight cliffhanger so at the same time, I might just have to continue!) 

The Witcher: House of Glass #1 by Paul Tobin

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I was a little iffy about this at the beginning, but this volume won me over by the end. I’ve only watched the first two seasons of The Witcher and that’s as far as my witcher experience has gone. But this definitely had similar witcher vibes, and was somehow even more intriguing as it was mostly contained in one setting. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Murder

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 2 by Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe

adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

5.0

I love the anime, and I love this manga. Stark has now entered the chat, and I love how all the characters bounce off each other. 

The Umbrella Academy, Volume 3: Hotel Oblivion by Gerard Way

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

I am not sure how to rate this because this just left me SO confused. I am a confused panda, and apparently I’m not the only one, which makes me feel better. I’d give points to the show for taking some aspects of this volume and making it like.. workable as a tv show. I think it’s also been such a long time since I read the previous volumes that I need to be able to have all of them at my fingertips so I can just plow through it all in one go. 

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.0

I liked Throne of Glass, and I really liked Crown of Midnight. Heir of Fire picked up the pieces of my broken heart that Crown of Midnight left behind, cradled them for a bit.. and then flung them around some more. Heir of Fire had so many highs and lows. It was a little slow to get going, but when it got there, the highs were delicious, and the lows were devastating.

I’m enjoying Celaena’s growth a lot with this book. She’s maturing, is (a lil) less of the brat that we met at the beginning, and is finally starting to carve out her place in this world. I’m also enjoying all the new characters in this book. At the very beginning, I struggled to get invested in Manon’s storyline, but it didn’t take long for me to get hooked, and Manon fascinates me now. I’m looking forward to where the story takes her from here.

This was the longest of the series so far. At almost 600 pages, I could feel how long it was and it was a bit of a struggle for me. This was definitely a slow burn read, but thankfully it was very enjoyable!

Beach Read by Emily Henry

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

 I think one of the things I love the most about Emily Henry's writing is the way she writes her characters. They always feel like fleshed out, real people, and it's always so easy to fall in love with them and to root for them the whole way through. I loved learning more about January and her family, why she became a writer, and what made her tick. 

I admit that I didn't love the main plot line of this book with the book challenge. January and Gus obviously needed a reason to spend so much time together, but the set-up of it all didn't feel so believable for me, and some of the dialogue didn't really work for me either. (But hey, I ain't a writer. I know nothing about the writing kind of mindset.) But once I got past the set-up, it was fairly smooth sailing. 

I've read Book Lovers, and Funny Story. This is my third Emily Henry book.. and this was my least favourite. Which isn't reeeally a bad thing. It was far from bad, but it wasn't as strong as the other two. I think I just have a special spot in my book loving heart for the others and this one just lacks a little something. Beach Read just didn't quite satisfy me as much as the others did, and it won't be quite as memorable, but it was still an enjoyable read. I'm a big Julian Whelan fan and her narration works so well with Emiliy Henry's books. Looking forward to more. 
 

My biggest complaint with this book is that the characters BARELY spent any time on the ACTUAL BEACH! PSHA!! I wanted to read about the warm sun overhead and the sand under your toes and maybe in other places because it's a romance and all!! 

I KID, OF COURSE. 

(Mostly.)