review

Book Review: The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski ★★★

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“I started to turn from the poems, then paused before a page almost entirely white, with only a few bare black words.

Gold-sandaled dawn

Fell like a thief

Upon me

I wondered what kind of night was so precious that when morning came it felt as if you had been robbed, as if what you wanted most had been cut from you like a bloody tithe.

I had never had a night worth stealing.”

My first Goodreads giveaway win!! Heck yeah! I was so super excited for this book when I first heard about it, because the author’s Winner’s Trilogy is one of my all-time favorite YA fantasy series. When I won an ARC of The Midnight Lie, I was ecstatic! I knew I had to read it right away. This one comes out in March.

While I did really enjoy this story, it’s LGBTQ+ romance, and the author’s writing, there were a few things that I felt were just a bit lacking. Overall, a very nice start to a new duology and I gave it 3 stars.

*Some spoilers at the end of the review*

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Book Review: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson ★★

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“Life is like the oil within a lamp. It can be measured, but the pace at which it burns depends on how the dial is turned day by day, how bright and fierce the flame. And there is no predicting whether the lamp might be knocked to the ground and shatter, when it could have blazed on a great while longer. Such is the unpredictability of life.”

Well if this wasn’t the most BORING dang thing I’ve ever read! Holy crap. It was such a chore to get through. I could not have cared less about the plot, the characters, the world – literally anything in this book. I was tempted to give this 1.5 stars, I swear to god haha. It was really bad 😅.

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Book Review: Circe by Madeline Miller ★★★★

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“Every moment mortals died, by shipwreck and sword, by wild beasts and wild men, by illness, neglect, and age. It was their fate, Prometheus had told me, the story they all shared. No matter how vivid they were in life, no matter how brilliant, no matter the wonders they made, they came to dust and smoke. Meanwhile every petty and useless god would go on sucking down the bright air until the stars went dark.”

This book was so much more than I expected! It was so good. Really lived up to the hype and I now see why everyone loves it. I went in with decently high expectations, based on how many and how often people rave about it, but I wasn’t expecting to be blown away or anything. Spoiler alert: I was! It was such a beautiful book. Definitely a 4 star read for me. Madeline Miller is also a new author that I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on.

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Book Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover ★★★

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“A writer should never have the audacity to write about themselves unless they’re willing to separate every layer of protection between the author’s soul and their book. The words should come directly from the center of the gut, tearing through flesh and bone as they break free. Ugly and honest and bloody and a little bit terrifying, but completely exposed.”

I had a VERY hard time deciding how to rate this book. On one level it was so engrossing and compulsively readable, creepy, and twisted – really good! But on the other, there were parts of the book that were actively turning me off from it and ruining my enjoyment, namely the characters and their behavior/choices. I was warring between 3.5 or 4 stars and I think in the end, I am going to settle on 3.5 stars.

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Book Review: The Dark Days Deceit by Alison Goodman ★★★

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“Yet what I had learned is that love is a leap of faith. A leap that not only takes you towards the person you love, but also towards the truth of yourself. Whom you love and how you love them will tell you more about yourself than anything else in this world.”

Alright, so the conclusion of the Lady Helen series! I’m glad I read this series so quickly; it was very fun and enjoyable. It was light and did not take much of an investment, honestly, which is absolutely what I look for sometimes. This final book in the trilogy was good, but a little disappointing as a finale: 3 stars.

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Book Review: Rough Animals by Rae DelBianco ★★★

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“The only way to influence another’s fate is by destroying them. It’s the only thing that can be done permanently and by an action within your control. To try to protect someone is to try to intervene in the actions of the world against them but that’s something you can’t face alone or entirely because if fate has bullets for them you can only take one.” 

This was a really interesting book! I was excited to read it ever since I started following Rae on Instagram. She seems like such a cool lady, with her beautiful horse and cow rustling and reading Faulkner in woods. Her debut novel was very much what I was hoping it would be and, despite some flaws, turned out to be a solid 3.5 star read! I would warn you, though, that this novel is extremely violent, not just to people (cause who cares about them?), but also to animals, so keep that in mind before picking it up.

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Book Review: A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab ★★

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“Dangerous. Reckless. Foolish. Mad. The words were beginning to feel more like badges of pride than blows.”

Hello, friends!

I must say, being back in the world of multiple Londons was comforting and fun. These books continue to capture my attention, with their fabulous writing, great worldbuilding, and wonderful characters. That being said, I do feel like this middle installment was plagued with second book syndrome quite a bit. I don’t know, something just felt different this go around and made me enjoy Kell and Lila’s stories a bit less. I’d ultimately give it 2.5 stars for that reason mainly.

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Book Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern ★★★★

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“You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus.
You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.”

Oooo guys. I loved this book! It was honestly gorgeous in every way. I know, I know. I’m pretty late to the game here, but I gotta be straight with ya; I did not expect this book to be so good! It has been sitting on my shelf for years and I just never got around to reading it. I kept putting it off do to my rather lackluster attitude toward circus books (I blame Water for Elephants for that 👎). But, I quickly discovered that the circus here is more of a magic show, complete with real magicians and illusionists. Did you ever see the movies The Prestige or The Illusionist? It’s more like that, which is so much cooler!! I cannot stress enough that, if like me, you foolishly neglected to read this book, you need to do so right now!

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Book Review: The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon ★★★★

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“Perhaps her mind would go on flexing psychic muscles that no longer existed; would be betrayed and mocked by a phantom self as the amputee is by a phantom limb. Someday she might replace whatever of her had gone away by some prosthetic device, a dress of a certain color, a phrase in a letter, another lover.” 

I finally got around to reading this book and I am so glad I did! Don’t you just love the feeling of finally being able to move a book from your TBR pile to your read shelf? Mmm it’s a good one. That being said, this was a bit of a difficult book to review. While only being about 150 pages, this little novel was chock full of dense language, insane conspiracies, crazy characters, and nonsensical dialogue. So, basically, it had all of the characteristics that I love about a satirical, postmodern, meta social commentary, parody fest. Woo!

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