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thecaffeinatedreader's Reviews (685)
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Such a delightful children's [Middle Grade, on the earlier side of it] book! My daughter is so excited to start this together with me now that I've read through it so quickly.
Saeed gives us a young Diana who is learning about herself and is keen to become a warrior. The best part is that this is all part of the Wonder Woman we know and love and Saeed keeps true to her and introduces her to a younger generation in novel form.
Well-paced, fun and lighthearted enough, but still with this stronger message of being Diana being a person of justice and wanting to help others.
Thanks to Random House for an eARC of this in exchange for my honest opinion. @PRHGlobal #partner #sponsored #ad @prhinternational
Saeed gives us a young Diana who is learning about herself and is keen to become a warrior. The best part is that this is all part of the Wonder Woman we know and love and Saeed keeps true to her and introduces her to a younger generation in novel form.
Well-paced, fun and lighthearted enough, but still with this stronger message of being Diana being a person of justice and wanting to help others.
Thanks to Random House for an eARC of this in exchange for my honest opinion. @PRHGlobal #partner #sponsored #ad @prhinternational
dark
emotional
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
adventurous
inspiring
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
This is such a good book, the story of a Nonbinary knight discovering their way in the world, and discovering who they really are. As much as I enjoyed it, I gave it like a 3.75/3.5 and rounded up to 4, the pacing in the middle dragged to the point where it took me much longer to finish this than anticipated. I couldn't get over how the story just took so long to conjure up, but, the last five chapters were AMAZING. Thanks so much to HarperVoyager UK and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion with this wonderfully original and old school story of Knights with fantastic rep.
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
https://thecaffeinatedreader.com/2020...
Volke’s perseverance was really fun to read, and Stovall gives him a vibrant narrative voice. In fact, I appreciated the light-hearted flow of Stovall’s writing style in general and we’re given a pretty fun cast of characters to help the story on its way.
Volk has a foster sister of sorts, Illia, and they travel to the mainland from their island with two more of their fellow islanders; Atty and Zaxis.
Once on the mainland, they’ll have to find a guild, have a master train them, and hopefully, one day become masters themselves.
Illia and Volke have unusual/rare Eldrin [the name of mystical creatures bonded to arcanists] and in Volke’s case, having a Knightmare could mean double the work as the Knightmare has been bonded before.
I will definitely be looking into the rest of the series and plan on keeping my eye on everything Stovall writes from now on. This could be a great read for older MG and younger YA readers as well. Thank you to WriteReads Tour and Stovall for an eARC in exchange for my honest review. 3.5 cups of coffee from me!
Volke’s perseverance was really fun to read, and Stovall gives him a vibrant narrative voice. In fact, I appreciated the light-hearted flow of Stovall’s writing style in general and we’re given a pretty fun cast of characters to help the story on its way.
Volk has a foster sister of sorts, Illia, and they travel to the mainland from their island with two more of their fellow islanders; Atty and Zaxis.
Once on the mainland, they’ll have to find a guild, have a master train them, and hopefully, one day become masters themselves.
Illia and Volke have unusual/rare Eldrin [the name of mystical creatures bonded to arcanists] and in Volke’s case, having a Knightmare could mean double the work as the Knightmare has been bonded before.
I will definitely be looking into the rest of the series and plan on keeping my eye on everything Stovall writes from now on. This could be a great read for older MG and younger YA readers as well. Thank you to WriteReads Tour and Stovall for an eARC in exchange for my honest review. 3.5 cups of coffee from me!
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Full review: https://thecaffeinatedreader.com/2020...
Pretty much my favorite duology of all time after reading this breathtaking book. Lim wove us back into the gorgeous land of A'landi and gave us Maia where we left her, in a position to lose herself to becoming a demon. The impending marriage of Lady Sarnai to the Emperor is upon the palace, the three dresses were made, now it is time to move forward to peace.
Of course, the journey of a hero/heroine never did go smoothly. Maia is dealing with things coming apart at the seams and desperately trying to keep it all together and achieve peace for her land and family while trying to ignore the demon inside.
The writing style is near perfection for this reader, I wanted to lose myself in this book and never return back to reality I was so invested in Maia's journey and her character growth from Spin the Dawn to the end of this is magnificent.
The ending was beautiful, and I'll leave it at that so I don't give away any spoilers. A Full review to be posted on my blog soon. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Pretty much my favorite duology of all time after reading this breathtaking book. Lim wove us back into the gorgeous land of A'landi and gave us Maia where we left her, in a position to lose herself to becoming a demon. The impending marriage of Lady Sarnai to the Emperor is upon the palace, the three dresses were made, now it is time to move forward to peace.
Of course, the journey of a hero/heroine never did go smoothly. Maia is dealing with things coming apart at the seams and desperately trying to keep it all together and achieve peace for her land and family while trying to ignore the demon inside.
The writing style is near perfection for this reader, I wanted to lose myself in this book and never return back to reality I was so invested in Maia's journey and her character growth from Spin the Dawn to the end of this is magnificent.
The ending was beautiful, and I'll leave it at that so I don't give away any spoilers. A Full review to be posted on my blog soon. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Jack Quick had a podcast and then he was given a chance to turn that into a true-crime tv documentary and he decided to reveal the injustices of the justice system. Police bias, shoddy investigating and circumstantial evidence led to Curtis Wade being convicted of murdering Eliza Dacey.
This equates to Curtis Wade being innocent…doesn’t it?
Jack Quick is certainly a different sort of MC, I really was impressed that Stevenson gave us a male MC with bulimia, something we so often forget can affect everyone. Another thing that was well written was the fact that there was no magic cure for it, that it stays with him and is something he constantly struggles with. Too easily do we write away difficult things with a wave of a ‘wand’ but Stevenson doesn’t do this and so I respect that.
Another thing about Jack Quick is that he makes decision after decision and he never knows how it will play out, this leads to many consequences (for better or worse you decide) and that’s something I always feel is important, especially in a thriller.
The book is divided into sections and to divide them, it’s set up like a TV episode script and that was actually a lot of fun to read, I found myself really happy to get to a new section just to read those bits alone.
There’s a lot going on in this book, just when you think you’ve figured it out, or rather Jack has it figured out, you’re left with more questions and more explanations. Now this was something that as we got toward the end that I wasn’t sure worked in its favour, but I tell you what, I did enjoy the ending tremendously.
I think that how it ended was extremely fitting and I applaud Stevenson for leaving it that way.
Obviously I’m not going to put spoilers so you’ll have to read to find out what I mean.
The crime takes place in a small town where everything is dependent on wine, wineries, and vineyards, one person’s in particular and because of this we get to see how that can be a bad thing but we also do see some redeemable characters as well and I think the absolute best part of all of this was the angle of the true-crime documentary.
This is a huge reminder that TV is still just that, TV. Interviews, evidence, towns, they can all be edited to appear how someone wants you to view it. Jack seems to forget that he has, whether he truly meant to or not, manipulated an audience into seeing things the way he wants them to and this is part of the consequences I was talking about, because what happens when he wants to try and attempt to dig for the real truth? Would anyone believe him, and how could he convince those who were convinced by him before that he may have been wrong?
A great thriller, perfect for this summer set in Australia in some ‘wine country’ and giving us twists and turns to no ends. Three and a half cups of coffee from this caffeinated reader!
**I want to thank Hodder & Stoughton for a chance to be on this blog tour and for a proof copy, which in exchange for, I have given my honest review.**
This equates to Curtis Wade being innocent…doesn’t it?
Jack Quick is certainly a different sort of MC, I really was impressed that Stevenson gave us a male MC with bulimia, something we so often forget can affect everyone. Another thing that was well written was the fact that there was no magic cure for it, that it stays with him and is something he constantly struggles with. Too easily do we write away difficult things with a wave of a ‘wand’ but Stevenson doesn’t do this and so I respect that.
Another thing about Jack Quick is that he makes decision after decision and he never knows how it will play out, this leads to many consequences (for better or worse you decide) and that’s something I always feel is important, especially in a thriller.
The book is divided into sections and to divide them, it’s set up like a TV episode script and that was actually a lot of fun to read, I found myself really happy to get to a new section just to read those bits alone.
There’s a lot going on in this book, just when you think you’ve figured it out, or rather Jack has it figured out, you’re left with more questions and more explanations. Now this was something that as we got toward the end that I wasn’t sure worked in its favour, but I tell you what, I did enjoy the ending tremendously.
I think that how it ended was extremely fitting and I applaud Stevenson for leaving it that way.
Obviously I’m not going to put spoilers so you’ll have to read to find out what I mean.
The crime takes place in a small town where everything is dependent on wine, wineries, and vineyards, one person’s in particular and because of this we get to see how that can be a bad thing but we also do see some redeemable characters as well and I think the absolute best part of all of this was the angle of the true-crime documentary.
This is a huge reminder that TV is still just that, TV. Interviews, evidence, towns, they can all be edited to appear how someone wants you to view it. Jack seems to forget that he has, whether he truly meant to or not, manipulated an audience into seeing things the way he wants them to and this is part of the consequences I was talking about, because what happens when he wants to try and attempt to dig for the real truth? Would anyone believe him, and how could he convince those who were convinced by him before that he may have been wrong?
A great thriller, perfect for this summer set in Australia in some ‘wine country’ and giving us twists and turns to no ends. Three and a half cups of coffee from this caffeinated reader!
**I want to thank Hodder & Stoughton for a chance to be on this blog tour and for a proof copy, which in exchange for, I have given my honest review.**
This is probably one of my favorite retellings ever now. I do have a soft spot for retellings in general but Plakson just knocks it out of the park for creativity. Lillian is such a bright, enigmatic, and innocent character with a heart so full and pure that I cheered her on from page one. This has a bit of a ‘Princess Bride’ meets ‘Wizard of Oz’/’Alice in Wonderland’ feel. It’s whimsical in all the best ways and though beautiful and lush with some darker moments it can fit a wide range of ages as far as reader audience goes.
Honestly, this was an incredible read.
Lillian writes in her book, and to her book, so as you read it’s as if she’s writing to you. She writes as she speaks so that makes from some creative spelling and word choice and it’s a lot of fun in that way. Also, this has a feel of the old fantasies and tales, there’s a character going on a long quest with a bunch of adventures along the way and a great slew of companions and character interactions.I’ll expand on this more when I write up a review on my blog but needless to say I completely love this book.
^ This was my GoodReads review, and to expand on it, this book really stuck with me. I mean I think about it randomly when someone asks about retellings. Obviously, there are some great ones out there but I just felt this was one of the more creative ones and it left me yearning in a pretty nostalgic manner. This harkened me back to again The Princess Bride [in terms of style, not content] where I chuckled, but more than that fleeting style comparison, it reminded me of the older books such as The Wizard of Oz, or Alice in Wonderland as I stated in the GoodReads review. There’s this sense of exploration of new lands and adventures, and a hero travelling through a world but instead of focusing on the world, we see bits of it as we go, piecing it together and focus on the adventures.
Lillian is a great protagonist and I loved her, and it’s not completely without heartache but it was little enough to be almost refreshing in that sense. She overcame quite a few things, and there was sadness, but that wasn’t the main focus of Lillian’s thoughts, she was carrying forward most of the time, toward a goal.
Not to mention, how many times can we recount a retelling or adaptation of The Emperor’s New Clothes and Plakson just completely blows me away. [I’m a HUGE Andersen fan so I can be picky]
I was also lucky enough to be gifted an audiobook copy from the Maestro herself, and I’ve delighted in listening to it with my daughter. In fact, this was an audiobook first and the fact that she has turned it into an equally beautiful novel on paper, that there’s no difference and they both flow flawlessly says a lot about her talent with words.
Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for a chance to read this in exchange for my honest review.