ravensandlace's reviews
497 reviews

Swing Batter, Swing by Brittany Ann

4.0

Title: Swing Batter Swing

Author: Brittany Ann

Genre: Romance

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Series: Batter Up (#2)

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: death, violence, gun violence, child abandonment, mentions of drugs, slut shaming, drugging, injury blood

Since this is the second book in the series, this review is probably going to get a bit spoilery. So make sure you read the first book before you read this review or if you don’t care about spoilers, I suppose you can go ahead and read this review anyway. But I just wanted to let you all know that.  

I want to start by saying multiple POVs can be so hit or miss. Often, you can get people confused, especially if they don't have a chapter title. But this book does the multiple POVS extremely well. Every single person has incredibly different personalities so it made it easy to tell who was who. Plus I always enjoy seeing how everyone reacts to different events. I was able to keep track of who was who even when I missed reading the chapter title. 

I have to say though, that these characters purposely struggle for no reason. Especially Gwen and Haley. Gwen truly went through so much and I was worried that she was going to lose her humanity. Luckily, she had some amazing friends to keep her with them. But wow, her story was angsty. As for Haley, I have a lot of thoughts about her but that will be saved for the review of the next book. As of writing this review, I have the last book to finish reading. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. I’m happy I got my happy ending with Gwen and Dean. I was devastated at the end of the first book. So I’m glad about that. Overall, I don’t have a lot to say about this but since it was the second book in a series but I did enjoy this book a lot. 

The Black Queen by Jumata Emill

3.5

Title: The Black Queen

Author: Jumata Emill

Genre: YA Mystery

Format: hardback library book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 3.5 stars

tw: natural disasters, racism, bullying, infidelity, abortion, assault, use of N-word, death, cancer, blood, underage drinking, rape, drugging, murder

So I read this for my YA Not club for February for Black History Month. This book had been on my radar for a while, especially because of the cover. It reminded me of Carrie, which is one of my favorite horror movies and favorite horror books. I’ve seen every single one and read the book. But unfortunately, this one was a bit of a miss for me. 

One of my problems was I figured out who killed Nova right away. They made it pretty obvious. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with that but it kind of bothered me that I was able to figure it out so quickly. It didn’t help that Tinsley, one of the main characters, and her parents felt like cartoon villains with how obvious they were with their cruelty. So it was made pretty clear to me who did it. Normally, it wouldn’t bother me to figure it out so quickly, but with this particular book, it did. 

I think one of my biggest problems was with Duchess, the other main character. Now I have no idea what it is like to be Black and I’ll admit that. But whenever I read Duchess’ POV, it just felt like a constant lecture. I felt like no matter what anybody, Black or White, did it was never enough and they were just expected to do more and more. She was also just judgey and I couldn’t vibe with that. I empathized with her struggles, truly I did. But no one likes being lectured constantly. I had a feeling that even Nova got kind of sick of it after a while. 

One of my favorite things about this book was the character growth. Duchess, who had bothered me, grew on me in the end as the book progressed. I still wasn’t totally in love with her but I can appreciate good character growth. She grew up. Tinsley learned that the way she was raised was horrible and she worked hard to unlearn it. Character growth is some of my favorite things in a book and this one had lots of it. 

Overall, while I wasn’t in love with the book, I did enjoy it. I knew this book would be loved by a lot of people. Especially those who enjoy a murder mystery or someone who enjoys a good character growth book. I just wasn’t a fan of some parts of the book.  

The Hungry Deep by J.L. Murray

4.0

Title: The Hungry Deep

Author: J.L Murray

Genre: Gothic Horror

Format: ebook

Series: Gothic Folk Book 1

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: misogyny, death, suicide, alcohol, illness, parental death, infidelity, gun violence, blood, child loss, abusive relationships, PTSD, car accident

I saw this book floating around on Threads and one of my goals is to read more horror books since I’m such a huge horror girly. I figured that this was a perfect horror book to dip my toes into and I was correct. It had just the right amount of spook and unsettling vibes and I was immediately hooked right from the beginning. 

As I was writing this review, I realized I hardly wrote any notes, which is a good thing. It means I was so sucked into the book that I didn’t stop to take many notes minus who the characters were. I found that I simply couldn’t read fast enough. The pacing was perfect. It wasn’t too fast or too slow. I was truly enjoying every single moment I had with this book. 

All the characters were done so well. The main character Rachel, was done to absolute perfection. She came off as an innocent naive woman but she was one smart cookie. There were times that I bought into her naivety and I truly thought there was no way that she could be this obtuse about what was going on but she proved me wrong over and over. She was so much smarter than anyone realized. I could just sing her praises all day but alas, I have other reviews to get to. But needless to say, I was so in love with her.

Overall, this was such a great book and the perfect gothic horror book. The atmosphere was done well. I felt so much dread all the time and I was living for every moment of it. There was an element of the supernatural and there was a feeling of dread. The main character and all the characters were so well done, even the villains. I found that I couldn’t dislike the villains because they were done so well. The writing and pacing was great. This is the perfect book for someone interested in starting the horror book journey. 

The Meadows by Stephanie Oakes

4.0

Title: The Meadows

Author: Stephanie Oakes

Genre: YA Dystopian

Format: hardback library book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: queerphobia, transphobia, racism, misogyny, PTSD, suicide, conversion therapy, blood, parental death, 

*the trigger warnings are also located at the front of the book

This book was read for my YA Not Club.

So I was in a bit of a bind. I needed a book for my YA Not Club. We are to pick a new book (released this year) YA book. I had missed the last meeting due to illness. So I rushed over to the library and pulled this one. I happened to be on my TBR and the author had written another book I enjoyed, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly. So I had a feeling I would enjoy this book.

Anyway, my intuition was correct. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It was a very slow burn but the book rewards you for your patience by dropping little bits of information. I took my time with this book because I did not want it to end. I soaked up all the mystery of the Meadows and I loved the feelings of dread that the Meadows gave me. There was constantly a sense of uneasiness that pervaded throughout the whole book. It made me incredibly uneasy and I was enjoying every single second of it. 

Eleanor was the perfect main character. For some reason, I felt like I couldn’t trust her fully. I felt like the secret she was holding was bad and I just couldn’t trust her at all. But after a while, I felt like I could trust her, and I enjoyed her character arc quite a bit. I was rooting for her the whole way. Even when I felt like I couldn’t trust her, I was still rooting for her and hoping for the best for her. 

This book also filled me with a sense of hope. Even though this book was about conversion therapy, I still felt so much hope. I had hoped that Eleanor could fix the world and let others know that they were perfect just the way they were. I am part of the LGBT community but I was blessed with a family that loves me for who I am and would never think of sending me to one of those conversion camps. My heart truly broke for all those girls, even the mean girls. I know that they weren’t being mean to be mean. They were hurting and they had no way to let out that hurt. 

Overall, this was a great book and I have nothing but high praise for it. I think every child, queer or not, should read this book. Hell, I think every adult should read this book. It‘s a very important book, especially in today's current climate. You can feel the hurt, the pain, the suffering, that these girls went through. If you aren’t moved by that, then you are just heartless. I can’t recommend this book enough. 

The Romanov Empress: A Novel of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna by C.W. Gortner

4.0

Title: The Romanov Empress

Author: C. W Gartner

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: hardback library book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: arranged marriage, death, child loss, injury, illness, infidelity, child abuse, blood, bombing, hanging, chronic illness (hemophilia), murder, murder of children

I have been making it a goal to read about different periods and while this book is still about the Romanovs, it’s about Tsar Nicholas II’s mother, someone who I know nothing about but I have always wondered what happened to her after the fall of tsarist Russia. I know that a lot of the royals fled to France and places like that but I did not know what happened to the extended family of Tsar Nicholas. I do not know much about the time between Catherine the Great and Tsar Nicholas so I figured why not take a crack at this book. 

I truly enjoyed this book a lot. While reading it, I often wondered what would have happened if Minnie, the main character, had been able to rule after her husband passed. Would the Romanov dynasty still exist today? I know that descendants exist but would Russia still be under imperial rule today? Those are thoughts that sometimes keep me up at night. Even though I know monarchy is bad, I still couldn’t help but feel bad for the Romanovs—so much death and destruction. I truly feel like it could have been avoided if Nicholas’ father had just taught him to rule better but that’s just my thoughts. 

Minnie was a great main character and I just loved her so much. I loved how she took no sass from anyone. She knew when to stand up for herself but also knew when to back down. She could play the court, when she was Tsarina, like a fiddle. As she got older, she got on my nerves a little bit but I could tell she was just trying to save her family dynasty. She certainly had that mentality of that the old way was the way to go but I couldn’t truly fault her for that. She did try to change but sometimes change is hard. I applaud her for at least trying. 

Overall, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It’s from an author that I haven’t heard of nor have I read their books. It’s always a risk when I check out other periods and other authors. But I’m glad I took that chance. This was a great book, and I will be checking out more books by this author. And I'll also be checking out more books about Minnie. Because I enjoyed her and her personality so much.  

The Tsarina's Daughter by Ellen Alpsten

3.0

Title: The Tsarina’s Daughter

Author: Ellen Alpsten

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: hardback library book

Series: Tsarina (#2)

Star Rating: 3 stars

tw: stillbirth, death, murder, infidelity, infertility, assault, illness, arranged marriage, sexual assault, animal death, domestic violence, incestuous-ish relationship (aunt and nephew), depression, mentions of war, torture, drugging

A special thank you goes to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an early copy of this book. Please know that this does not influence my rating or thoughts on the book itself.

One of my more casual goals is to read books from different periods besides the usual ones I read. When I read historical fiction, I tend to read the same periods which are usually King Henry VIII, Russian tsars, and WWII. So I’ve made it a goal to branch out. This particular book is about Catherine the Great’s mother-in-law. So it’s kind of in the same time period but I don’t know a lot about her mother-in-law so I was hoping to learn a little bit more.  

I’m going to be honest here, I expected Elizabeth to be better, I guess. I expected her to be this badass girl who didn’t take any guff from any men and knew exactly what she wanted. Instead, she just relied on everyone to save her and made multiple poor decisions, which nearly resulted in her getting killed many times. There were so many times when she could have gotten the throne. But chose to just wait which didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Then again I am not an expert in running a country so maybe it made sense. 

This wasn’t a horrible book but I guess I expected more. When I read Robert K. Massie’s book about Catherine the Great. I expected to read about how formidable Elizabeth was. I mean she stole Catherine’s kids to raise herself. I saw her as a hard, cold, and unforgiving woman. In this book, she comes off as weak and foolish. The book itself was okay to read. There were times when the entire screen (I read on a Kindle) was a whole paragraph. It could have been broken up into more paragraphs so it would be a little bit easier to read. 

Overall, this was an okay book but I wasn’t thrilled with it. Elizabeth was an alright character. The book itself was a bit too long. It could have been cut down some and the story wouldn’t have been affected. Also, can we talk about why this book is $30.99? This is practically highway robbery! No hardback should cost that much. But overall, I am glad I read it and can add another book to my goal.  

Strike Zone by Brittany Ann

3.0

Title: Strike Zone

Author: Brittany Ann

Genre: Romance

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Series: Batter Up (#3)

Star Rating: 3 stars

tw: sexual assault, murder, mental issues: PTSD, anxiety, and depression

So I love a good angst story. I truly don't mind working for my happy ever after. I don’t like my happy endings handed to me sometimes. However, as much as I love this series, this one was the weakest one for me. This book is mostly about Haley and James. James was great. I enjoyed his character arc, but I got to talk about Haley. Because if this book hadn’t been all about her, I think I would have enjoyed this book a little more. 

I understand that Haley has had a bad past with an emotionally abusive mother but holy cow, she started to drive me bonkers. I truly tried to be patient with her. I don’t know what it’s like to have an emotionally abusive mother but I do have a degree in psychology so I have learned about what child abuse does to a person. But I only have so much patience. This next bit might be spoilery to the first two books so read at your own risk. 

My biggest problem with Haley was she expected everyone to leave her. Her siblings left her with her mom but I have no idea what they were supposed to do. I think they were going to college so I truly doubt they would have been able to keep her. A lot of colleges have rules that freshmen must stay on campus so I don’t think she would have been able to live on the campus. She expects her friends to leave her even when they tell her constantly they won't and have given her no reason to expect that. They stayed by her side throughout everything. Even when Gwen was dealing with the things she was dealing with, she still stood by Haley and was happy for her. But the biggest problem was that she broke up with James and then got mad when he respected that boundary and let her be for a time. She complained that all people do is leave her, especially James but SHE LEFT HIM! This was a constant theme in the book and Haley had a ton of page time so we constantly got to hear about it. I just couldn’t deal with it. If you wanted to be with him, then be with him but don’t string the poor guy along. Especially when he came clean with everything because he wanted to be with her so bad. 

Besides Haley and her issues, I am enjoying the dark turn this book is taking. There is so much darkness happening and I’m anxious to see the group try to recover from it. Or will they succumb to the darkness? I guess I will have to read the last book to find out. But personally, I hope they keep a little bit of the light they have but I do love that they are willing to do anything necessary to keep their family safe. 

Overall, I enjoyed the book well enough but Haley became a real problem for me. I really needed her to just grow up a tiny bit and realize the world is going to leave her but she definitely needs to change her attitude or she will truly be alone. I hope things change in the fourth book and I get the peace of mind that I need. But I still do recommend this book series quite a bit! 

The Pumpkin King and Other Tales of Terror by R. David Fulcher

4.0

Title: The Pumpkin King and Other Tales of Terror

Author: R. David Fulcher

Genre: Horror

Format: ebook

Series: NA

Star Rating: 4 stars

A special thank you goes to Coffee and Thorns for providing me with a copy of this book. Please know that this does not influence my rating or thoughts on the book itself.

tw: death, guns, blood, parental death, sick children, assault, infidelity, toxic relationship, theft murder

When Coffee and Thorn sent out the email, looking for reviewers for this book, I literally read the first sentence of the synopsis, as I mentioned above, and then sent an email back saying yes, sign me up! Something about this book grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go. I knew I had to read it and I’m so dang glad I did. As soon as I got the book, I read it in less than two days. I was hooked. I stayed up way too late but it was well worth the tiredness the next day. 

So this book was a collection of short stories or essays, depending on how you look at it. A lot of them were only a couple of pages long but I didn’t mind that at all. If anything, it made me want more. There were quite a few that I could see becoming full-length novels and I sincerely hope the author does turn some of them into novels. Since there were so many, I will talk about a few of my favorites. But I want to emphasize that I really enjoyed this book as a whole. 

Marienburg Castle was about a zombie invasion during World War II. It reminded me of Call of Duty: Black Ops zombie mode. I spent many hours with my brother playing that game and it made me so excited to see what the rest of the book had to offer as this was the first book. The Pumpkin King was about Samhain. The dialogue was cheesy and reminded me of those 80s horror movies, which I love so much and started my love of all things horror. A Matter of Taste was creepy but interesting. I loved the concept of eyes as payment since they see sin. The Night Fighter was about a vampire flying planes, which you don’t read about every day. This one was beautifully written. The Huntress was about Dorian Gray’s descendants. I enjoyed this one a lot since I’m a huge Dorian Gray fan. My only wish was that this one was a little longer but honestly, that is me being picky. The Faeire Lights was about how dangerous faeries can be and it was written like a video game, which I enjoyed being a gamer. 

Overall, I thought this was an exceptional book with very few clunkers. This book revitalized my love for horror and made me excited for the genre again. It reminded me why I love the genre in the first place. I'm excited to go out there and find more works by this author. They truly have a gift for writing horror. 

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

3.0

Title: Fairy Tale

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Fantasy Horror

Format: ebook

Series: NA

Star Rating: 3 stars

tw: parental death, alcoholism, fall, injury, cancer, death, hospital setting, gun violence, infant death, murder, blood violence

Stephen King is an interesting author. There are a lot of people that love him a lot and there are others that can’t stand him. I’ve only read one other book by him and that was Carrie. If I’m being honest, I am intimated by him and his sheer volume of work. So when my book club (not my YA Not club) chose this as the book of the month, I was pretty excited as I finally had a reason to pick up some more Stephen King books. But honestly, this book was a bit of a miss. 

For starters, is King paid by the word? He just puts down every single word he thinks of. It started to be a bit much. This book could have easily been 300 pages as opposed to 600 pages. There was definitely a strong need for editing. There were also certain phrases he kept repeating over and over. There was one phrase “Of course that’s not what he said”. It was literally on every single page. After the fifteenth time seeing it, I wanted just to throw the book. We get it! Empis has a different way of speaking than Charlie, the main character. It started to get so old. 

I also noticed that King cannot write teenagers or at least teenagers from this decade. The main character, Charlie, talks like someone from the 1950s but this book occurred in 2013. There was so much weird slang and the way he talked about the internet was odd. I’m not sure if King has grandkids or not, but if he does have them, he could have benefitted from chatting with them especially if they are teenagers. It just threw me off so badly. One thing I did like about him was that he wasn’t afraid to express emotion. He gave his dad hugs and told him he loved him all the time. That was refreshing to see because so often we don’t see teen boys express their emotions without being made fun of it. It was lovely to see his dad encourage expressions of emotions. 

There were a couple more problems that I had with this book. One was this book relied on you knowing fairy tales, especially the original fairy tales. The Grimm fairy tales were talked about a lot and I honestly haven’t read them. I think I remember one of them in a college course I took but other than that, I truly don’t know these fairy tales. I know that Disney made them a lot happier than what they were originally intended. I confess that I don’t know many of the original fairy tales. So I was kind of at a loss at some parts of the story. 

My other problem was with the world, Empis. I don't quite understand the lore or how it came to be. It was just kind of confusing. It just seemed like a mishmash of different types of fairy tales all piled together in one. And, as I mentioned above, I don’t know much about the original fairy tales, I was pretty confused for the most part. It didn’t help that Charlie spent most of his time in Empis in prison. So we got to know about the prison pretty extensively. 

Overall, the book was okay but it wasn’t the best and I had a lot of problems with it. I won't give up on Stephen King, however. I have acquired It and The Shining thanks to some luck in thrifting. I have also heard that some of his older work is better so I’ll keep trying. 

Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon

2.0

Title: Godly Heathens

Author: H. E Edgmon

Genre: YA Fantasy

Format: hardback library book

Series: The Ouroboros (#1)

Star Rating: 2 stars

tw: graphic gore and body horror, violence including murder and torture, off-page sexual violence including experiences involving children, abuse including child abuse and off-page domestic abuse, mentions of transphobia and racism including references to slavery and genocide, animal death

*All these trigger warnings are located in the front of the book

A special thank you goes to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for providing me with an early copy of this book. Please know that this does not influence my rating or thoughts on the book itself.

No one is more disappointed than me about the low rating I gave this book. This was one of my most anticipated reads since last year. I was immediately hooked by the cover and then I read the synopsis and I was obsessed. But I just could not enjoy this book at all and it’s all because of the main character, Gem.

Gem is so incredibly unlikable. I think they are supposed to be but they went over the line and there were no redeeming factors in their personality. I couldn’t deal with how stuck up and awful Gem was. They were constantly judging everyone and thought they were better than everyone. One instance that sticks out to me is when they were talking about their best friend, Enzo. They said that Enzo acted gayer than he was and said their whole personality was fake. They also said that they hated them for it. It was just too much and made me so mad. Why would you hate your best friend for their personality? What’s the point of even being friends with them? I had a problem with the way Gem treated their mom as well but if I dove into that, we would be here all day. So let’s just say, Gem is pretty unlikable. 

While I very much enjoyed the lore, it was so frustrating that it came in bits and pieces. I do understand why it was but there was so much of it, that it needed to be almost info dumped for me to fully understand. I’m unsure if the lore was based on ancient gods, like Greek, or it was something entirely different. I enjoyed the bits I did get but I just wanted more. 

I want to put at least one positive thing about this book because I think all books have at least one redeeming quality. I loved all the rep that was in this book. It was filled with lots of LGBT+ rep and that was wonderful to see. I couldn’t even begin to list them because there were so many, which is a good problem to have. There were also POC characters and it was just all organic. It didn’t feel forced or anything. 

Overall, I just couldn’t love this book the way I wanted to and I am so disappointed. Gem was a main character I simply couldn’t get behind due to a lot of their actions and their personality. I recently found out that I have the arc for the second book so I might as well continue with the series to see if it gets better. I truly hope it does.