Book Review
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Mini Reviews // Progress on My Bookish Backlog
I struggled with lack of motivation to blog for most of last year. Throw in the fact that the internet just kept me overwhelmed with lots of bad news for a while last year, and my “laziness” felt pretty justified. So, I’ve had these reviews sitting in my drafts for a while, and I decided to let them see the light of day. Have you read any of these books? Which books have you enjoyed recently?
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Mixed Feelings // Spin the Dawn Mini Review + Aesthetic
AMAZON — GOODREADS — BARNES & NOBLE — BOOK DEPOSITORY I feel like I should start paying more attention to book descriptions because the first few lines of marketing spiel can be quite deceiving. * “Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping YA fantasy about a young girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor …” * That’s the first (and only) thing I saw about this book that prompted me to read it. It’s probably what’s made several other people eager to read this book, because who wouldn’t be drawn in by the promise of a Mulan kind of story? However, I think…
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A Rollercoaster of Emotions // The Familiars by Stacey Halls
AMAZON — GOODREADS — BARNES & NOBLE — BOOK DEPOSITORY After I saw how much Olivia @ Olivia’s Catastrophe enjoyed this book, I thought I’d give it a go. And I must say, I have no regrets! The Familiars made me feel so many things, including: AWE At the author’s impressive descriptions. Even though things start out quite slowly, and it took me a while to get into the story, the dark atmosphere is set up from the beginning of the story, so that it draws the reader in until the end. SADNESS At Fleetwood’s plight. It’s been a while since I read a story that discusses miscarriages and infertility…
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Book Review: A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
CONTENT WARNING: BULLYING, XENOPHOBIA, AND GENERAL DISPLAYS OF ASSHOLERY AMAZON — GOODREADS — BARNES & NOBLE — BOOK DEPOSITORY I’d been wanting to read a Tahereh Mafi book for a while (I tried reading Shatter Me, but couldn’t get past the first few pages), so this seemed like a good place to start. And I must say, I devoured this book in a few hours and loved every minute of it. * “I was stuck in another small town, trapped in another universe populated by the kind of people who’d only ever seen faces like mine on their evening news, and I hated it.“ * Right from the second page,…
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Book Review: Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann
AMAZON — GOODREADS — BARNES & NOBLES — BOOK DEPOSITORY I really didn’t have such high hopes before I read this book, and that can be blamed on the fact that I only picked it up because of the cover and the fact that it features an ace character. I’m quite glad I read it, though, since it brought me out of my reading slump/smut fest. Let’s Talk About Love is about Alice and her experiences as an ace person trying to navigate life and relationships. Although the book’s focus is the romance, it also shows how Alice is going about deciding what she wants for her future, even though…
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Mini Reviews: Once Upon A Harem
I’m a sucker for fairytale retellings and reverse harem, so when I heard about this series, I was sold! The Once Upon A Harem series is a joint effort by several authors who are retelling select fairytales the reverse harem way. Each book is a standalone, as it features a different fairytale, so I’m reviewing in the order I read (rather than the order they were released). *** While Beauty Sleeps by Ripley Proserpina My Thoughts: I’ve read other RH stories by Ripley Proserpina, so I was expecting to be impressed. While this was well written, easy to follow, and just very interesting, it was just too fluffy. Maybe it’s…
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Book Review: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
AMAZON — GOODREADS — BARNES & NOBLE — BOOK DEPOSITORY The blurb pretty much tells you what to expect from this story; it’s about Korede, whose sister has formed a habit of killing her lovers for whatever reason. However, it’s also about many other things, including family and sisterhood, jealousy, favouritism, and loyalty. Korede has spent her life overshadowed by her younger sister’s beauty. While Ayoola can get away with a lot of things because of her physical appearance, Korede can’t. This means that Korede can’t tell anyone about her sister’s murderous ways, because who’d believe her? Everyone would just think she’s jealous. So, she goes on cleaning up after…
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6 Things I Like About A Girl Like Her
This is one of those reviews where I can’t do much more than gush, so here’s a dedicated post to me just gushing about A Girl Like Her. First Impressions: This book grabbed my attention from the start and it was all because of the period mention. First impressions count, folks! Representation: Ruth is a curvy, autistic character of colour who has been abused in the past. And she’s of Sierra Leonean descent (I’m biased when it comes to African characters). Just having marginalised characters is not enough, the story also has to do justice to the characters, and I think A Girl Like Her does Ruth justice! It also…
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Book Review: Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart
AMAZON GOODREADS BARNES & NOBLE BOOK DEPOSITORY *** I think what prompted me to skip all the books on my TBR list for Grace and Fury was the fact that it seemed to be about strong females defying odds in their various positions (at least, that’s what I got from the synopsis). To give you a little background, the story features Nomi and Serina. While they’re both sisters, they’ve been raised completely differently, with Serina being groomed to be a Grace in the palace, and Nomi being trained to be her sister’s handmaiden. Serina, who is satisfied with the future that has been carved out for her doesn’t understand Nomi’s…
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Thoughts I Had While Reading The Wicked King
Warning: I copied this non-review straight from my notes while I read the book. So, my apologies if it’s not very coherent. There will be minor spoilers ahead, especially for those who are yet to read The Cruel Prince. *** Cardan is quickly becoming my favourite character. Of course, I have to get over how much I disliked him in The Cruel Prince. There’s no clear good vs bad in this story. Everyone does morally questionable stuff. I guess it’s all about who has the best intentions. The only clear rules that Jude and maybe Cardan subscribe to: don’t kill your family and always be there for your siblings (unless they killed your family, of course). Locke is probably going to reveal…
