shesreadingagain_'s reviews
204 reviews

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

adventurous lighthearted mysterious 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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. It was a very whimsical story and reminded me of the never ending story a bit. My favorite character hands down is Shin. Man, give it up one time for him. I can’t say too much without spoiling it but I really enjoyed the character development of all of the characters we meet along the way.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

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challenging mysterious medium-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

5.0

Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

Umbra: Sentient Stars by Amber Toro

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

Thank you to Amber Toro for the opportunity to read this book as an arc before its release.
As an avid Science Fiction fan for my entire life, my bar for science fiction is fairly high.
Umbra, meet and far surpassed my exceptions. I recently finished watching The Expanse and this book hit that same note for me. The adventures that the crew goes on really had me on the edge of my seat. No need to worry if you haven’t read or are not a seasoned sci-fi reader, this book is an easy read to get into.

Amber has a prose that draws you in and quite literally doesn’t let up until the very end.
I found myself not being able to put this book down. I believe I read this arc in less that four days.
As a mood reader, it’s difficult to stick to one book but this had me HOOKED! It has something for everyone: sentient ship, banter, romance sub plot, adventures, action, and parent child relationship strain. Literally I found myself falling in love with every aspect of this book.

The action scenes! I need to take a moment and talk about how enthralling Amber’s writing is. I found myself gasping out loud and even physically cringing at some of the outcomes of those scenes. I could go on about how well the multiple POV’s were written. I connected with each of our main characters: Hinata, Feyja and Skyla were all so different but cohesive. They all brought a new perspective to the table. Skyla is our FMC and by the end of the book I understood her journey. She really tore at my heart strings, especially that ending! The romance sub plot is a slow burn and I am OBSESSED with it. Give me all the pinning, it was everything.
Not me about to cry while also NEEDING more! I cannot wait until book two comes out! I need it EXPEDITIOUSLY.

If the Tide Turns by Rachel Rueckert

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.5

Destruction. That is the central theme that seems to tie all that happens throughout this book. The year is 1715, our FMC Maria is a woman that quite literally goes against the current. She is sharp witted, bucks societal and religious norms. She just wants to live her life on her terms, unfortunately, the year is 1715 and that is impossible.

This story is rather dark and I feel that is important to note. Maria is consistently stalked by destruction, I feel it would be easy to say that the people that did Maria wrong are evil or terrible, but I think when we really look, they are all products of their environment. Particularly Maria’s mother. In the eyes of 2024, she seems like such a terrible person that must hate her daughter. I don’t see that, I would encourage the reader to see things from the prospective of a mother born in the last 1600s (where laws were based on religion), she was purely wanting the best for her daughter and she advised her so. She truly believed that if Maria did not follow Gods laws that she would be sentenced to eternal damnation. I’m not saying that is good, bad or indifferent but I strongly recommend placing yourself in the place of these characters and what the real people in these time periods endured. Rueckert made such multidimensional characters, I’ll be thinking about them for a long time to come.

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

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adventurous emotional tense slow-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

3.5

I feel like this book was a lot slower than the first book. It focused a lot more on the political aspects of the series and I feel that a lot of the book was setting up book three. It has gotten me amped up for book three and I can’t wait to jump into it next! Excited to see how Rebecca is going to wrap up this series!

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