Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating at time of review: 3.77 Stars Content Rating: PG-13 (for language) Chronic overachiever Prudence Barnett is always quick to cast judgment on the lazy, rude, and arrogant residents of her coastal town. Her dreams of karmic justice are fulfilled when, after a night out with her friends, she wakes up with the sudden ability to cast instant karma on those around her. Pru giddily makes use of the power, punishing everyone from public vandals to mean gossips, but there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner. Quint is annoyingly cute and impressively noble, especially when it comes to his work with the rescue center for local sea animals. When Pru resigns herself to working at the rescue center for extra credit, she begins to uncover truths about baby otters, environmental upheaval, and romantic crossed signals—not necessarily in that order. Her newfound karmic insights reveal how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed, love and hate . . . and fate. (goodreads.com) If you have read my reviews for very long, you are probably aware that Marissa Meyer is one of my favorite authors of all time. If you were not aware of that fact, just know that I am automatically suspicious of anyone who dislikes the Lunar Chronicles. Librarian diplomacy forces me to say that you are free to like what you like and dislike what you dislike, but I don’t know if we can ever really be friends if you actively dislike the Lunar Chronicles. Moving on. Since Marissa Meyer is one of my favorite authors, you may have two questions for me. 1. Corrie, why the heck did it take you so long to read this book that was released two years ago? 2. Corrie, why are you even bothering to review this since it’s a Marissa Meyer book and you obviously love it? To answer question one: Well, you know what, the past two years have been just a smidge wack-a-doodle and my reading habits, like everything else, have changed a bit. Also, even though I love this author, I don’t typically read contemporary romance, which may have somewhat deterred me when looking at this book. To answer question two: Hold your horses antsy pants, I promise this review is going to be more than me just gushing over a book I liked… though I can’t promise that there won’t be any fangirling at all. This is a Marissa Meyer book we’re talking about. When I started reading this book I was actually extremely disappointed. Shocking the entire world, including myself, I was not immediately drawn in. I think part of the problem was that I started reading in the winter and this is very much a summer book. The other major problem was that I could not stand the main character, Prudence. *dramatic gasp here* She is still probably my least favorite Marissa Meyer MC, but I did like her better by the end of the book. However, after several attempts at reading the first few chapters and not getting into it when I read this book in the winter. I decided to peace out and try again in the summertime. When I returned to Instant Karma in the warm opening days of this summer, I found it much more to my liking. There are some books that can be read no matter the weather, but I’ve found that with summer books, for me, it has to be summer when I’m reading them (otherwise I get extra sad when I look out the window and see Midwest winter slapping me in the face). I was still constantly annoyed with Prudence even if I was enjoying the book more. Her self-righteousness was so frustrating. I know she was supposed to be like that, because that was part of her character development arc, but goodness gracious she was irritating at the beginning. She was still sort of annoying at the end of the story, but it felt more manageable as a reader and she definitely had more redeeming qualities. Plus, it was nice that she wasn’t just a copy and paste of Meyer’s other characters, as some authors tend to do. Once I hit chapter 16 (they’re fairly short chapters) I was fully sucked into the book. I needed to know what was going to happen to the marine animal rescue center and what business tactics Prudence would try to save all of the adorable sea lions. Also, the romance in this book was so cute it made me want to scream for joy. Seriously though, is it any wonder I don’t want to get married when my expectations for relationships come from Marissa Meyer books? She has set the bar too high. No mortal man can compare. No romantic gestures will ever live up to the sweetness of fictional ones. I literally hugged the book when… well I can’t say what happened exactly because it’s a spoiler, but just know that it involved a Beatles song and it was freaking adorable. It was also semi-educational! Lots of interesting things about marine animals! And, though I am not a fan of the ocean, it did kind of make me want to go snorkeling. Not enough to actually do it, but the book made it sound nice. There was also a good message about environmental awareness which I appreciated. I’m a little disappointed that I live in a landlocked state and can’t organize a beach cleanup event. Maybe a river bank clean up event? Or maybe I’ll just keep picking up trash on my walk to work. It doesn’t really have the same flare, but it’ll have to do. Like most contemporary romances, there wasn’t really any intense sort of plot beyond saving the rescue center, but it was still a fun fluffy read. Very different from Marissa Meyer’s other books which all have intense, high stakes plotlines. This book featured just a dash of magic. Hardly enough to really be considered magic, but it was still there. Prudence is able to apply karma to people she sees doing wrong things. For instance, she sees a toddler smash someone else’s sandcastle and then THE TODDLER IS OBLITERATED BY COSMIC FORCES WHEN A HORRIFYING… beachball… FLIES FROM THE HEAVENS AND… bops him in the face. The “instant karma” that she deals out does create a few dilemmas and a bit of excitement, but you hardly even notice that she has the ability while reading. I almost forgot to mention it in this review, honestly. A fun plot device, but not actually a big part of the emotion of the story. While I started off disappointed and alarmed that I might not like a book written by one of the queens of YA writing, I ended up in a fit of happy giggles. My cat truly must think I am delusional when she sees me stare at paper for hours on end, laughing and yelling for no apparent reason. Bless that sweet kitty for putting up with me. If you are in the mood for a summer romance featuring adorable sea lions (definitely look at pictures of sea lions while reading this book) and just a pinch of magic, then this may be the book for you! It definitely got me out of my reading slump so expect more reviews soonish! Now, you must excuse me because I’m off to drool over the fact that Marissa Meyer has another book coming out this year (it’s called Cursed and it’s the sequel to Gilded, which I will be reading later this year, maybe even this summer yet, we’ll see). Thanks for reading! GIFs from giphy.com
Cover from goodreads.com
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Personal Rating: 3.5 stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.3 stars Content rating: PG-13 (for language, a bit of intense smooching, and dangerous actions) Annabelle’s life has always been Perfect with a capital P. Then bestselling young adult author Lucy Keating announces that she’s writing a new novel—and Annabelle is the heroine. It turns out, Annabelle is a character that Lucy Keating created. And Lucy has a plan for her. But Annabelle doesn’t want to live a life where everything she does is already plotted out. Will she find a way to write her own story—or will Lucy Keating have the last word? (goodreads.com) This was an odd, but enjoyable book. I picked it up to read between books in a series that I’m reading right now. I just wanted something light and fairly contemporary to read in short bursts since the books in the series I’m reading are ones that you really have to sit down and focus on. This book has short chapters and there isn’t much to keep track of in the way of plot so it would have made a good “short bursts” read, except for the fact that it was nearly impossible to only read one chapter at a time. Even though I am not much of a contemporary-romance reader (although I’m not 100% sure this can be considered contemporary) this book really sucked me in and if I read one chapter then I immediately had to read another. The chapters are short and move the story along quickly. Despite not even liking the characters all that much, I ended up staying up way past my bedtime (on a work night!) to finish reading it. I don’t think I physically could have put it down at that point. And my cat did her best to make me stop reading to no avail. So, no it was not the best book I’ve ever read, but by golly it was enjoyable. The characters annoyed me most of the time, especially the MC, Annabelle, but I still really wanted to know what happened to everyone. One thing that kind of bothered me was the fact that the author made herself one of the characters, but kind of not, but also yes. Like, the author of this book is Lucy Keating, right? And then, in the story of the book, Annabelle meets an author called Lucy Keating who turns out to be sort of the antagonist god-like character in the story. And the facts given about Lucy Keating in the book are not true of IRL Lucy Keating as far as I can find (Book Keating has written many more books than IRL Keating). Obviously I do not know IRL Keating personally, but I feel like Book Keating could have just been an author character with a different name. It got very confusing to try and figure out if the fourth wall was being broken or simply bent a smidge. The romance in the story was cute if kinda meh. I wasn’t sure about how the love triangle was resolved, but I am no expert on matters like these and I don’t want to spoil it so I won’t tell you much about it. I did enjoy the writing tips sprinkled throughout the book. It was kind of fun because it gave you advice on writing a story while being about a girl struggling to “write her own story”. It felt similar to If Cats Disappeared from the World—a sci-fi that’s not really a sci-fi because it’s actually talking about something deeper, using the fantastical to speak about the everyday human experience. In this case, it was about how Annabelle usually had every moment of her life spelled out by schedules and planners and how it’s like she’s writing out her life and then someone actually starts writing her life and she has to figure out how to break free of that. So, it doesn’t focus on the crazy aspect of having an author control your actions so much as it is about breaking free of your set ways and being willing to make your own choices. And romance. It focused a lot on romance, which was not really anything like If Cats Disappeared from the World. If you are looking for a cute love triangle romance with some self-reflection stuff thrown in and just a taste of sci-fi/fantasy to top it all off, then this might be the book for you! As I’m not sure it is necessarily a “good” book, but I had fun reading it and I hope you do too if you decide to pick it up. Now, I’d better get back to corralling my own misbehaving fictitious characters (they’ve really gotten out of hand lately…). Thanks for reading, see you next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30653879-literally Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 4.04 Content Rating: PG-13 (for language and alcohol consumption) Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in—it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi—or Izzy, because “It’s easier this way”—and her mom against the world. But then Izzy discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity… and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess. In a whirlwind, Izzy travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the country she always dreamed of. But being a princess isn’t all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight. Izzy soon finds herself caught between worlds, and between versions of herself—back home, she was never “American” enough, and in Japan, she must prove she’s “Japanese” enough. Will Izumi crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairytale, happily ever after? (goodreads.com) I want to preface this by saying that I’ve never been to Japan, nor have I studied much about Japan or the Japanese Imperial Family, so I’ll withhold comments about whether this is realistic or not. I mean, the whole idea of being a secret princess is pretty unrealistic, but my goodness it is fun to read about. I have heard others say that the cultural aspects are not entirely realistic (though the author does say she fact checked a few things with her Japanese friends), but since I don’t have any base knowledge I’m not going to be passing judgement on that aspect of the book. Moving on. Basically, the premise of this book is pretty much the same as The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, but not told in diary format and an Asian princess instead of a European one. Still in first person, but not written as a diary. I’ve never read The Princess Diaries (though now I sort of want to), but I did watch both movies (they are masterpieces and you can’t convince me otherwise, I mean, Stan Lee makes a cameo in the second one so how can you not love it, also Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway, Chris Pine… need I say more?). I’ve always loved the idea of finding out that you are royalty. Even though I went through a tomboy-not-like-other-girls-phase from preschool through most of highschool and claimed that I was uninterested in “girly” things, I have always loved, loved, loved a good princess story. I mean, being royalty sounds very cool despite the fact that I would probably run a country into the ground. Yeah, I’m not so good at politics. So if I were a princess, it would hopefully be of a figurehead monarchy. Since I adore princess stories, it was not difficult for me to fall in love with this one. Izumi, while a little annoying, was a fun character and I liked her and her friend group’s shenanigans. Also, there was a romance, which was very cheesy and totally insta-lovey, but still cute. And, of course, there was royal intrigue, fancy dresses, conniving cousins, etiquette lessons, tabloids, and all of the fun that comes with a book like this. This is exactly the light summer read that I needed and I am thrilled to hear that there will be a sequel sometime next year. Not so thrilled that I have to wait a whole year because I need to know what happens next. It wasn’t a cliffhanger ending, but it did feel somewhat abrupt and I want more as soon as possible. Thanks for reading this review! TTFN, I need to dust off my tiara. Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54860605-tokyo-ever-after Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.64 Stars Content Rating: Light R (for violence) Trigger warnings: Mentions of suicide. In the kingdom of Lovero, nine rival Families of assassins lawfully kill people for a price. As a highly skilled member of one of these powerful clans, seventeen-year-old Lea Saldana has always trusted in the strength of her Family. Until she awakens to find them murdered and her home in flames. The Da Vias, the Saldanas’ biggest enemy, must be responsible—and Lea should have seen it coming. But her secret relationship with the Da Vias’ son, Val, has clouded her otherwise killer instinct—and given the Da Vias more reason than ever to take her Family down. Racked with guilt and shattered over Val’s probable betrayal, Lea sets out to even the score, with her heart set on retaliation and only one thought clear in her mind: make the Da Vias pay. (goodreads.com) This is a book that I picked up without knowing anything about it beforehand, which is something I used to do a lot (before I became a boring old grown up) and have been trying to do more of lately. Thankfully, this book was just the thing I needed to get me out of the reading slump I’ve been in (I blame social media, because, again… boring old grown up over here). There were good things and bad about this book, interesting and boring, but it kept my interest like no other book has for the past while. In the time between reading this book and The Book of Pearl, I picked up and then DNF’d about four books, which is never a good feeling, so I was glad Assassin’s Heart grabbed my attention and refused to let go. Even if the romance was a little forced and annoying. This story is told in first person perspective, which is never my favorite, but was fairly neutral here. I didn’t feel as though it enhanced the story or took much away from it, it was simply a tool that was used. But, if I’m being completely honest, when books have a lot of action like this one does, I typically prefer third person perspective just because it can get annoying to have all of the “I stabbed with my sword” or “I did a super awesome flip” or “I punched that dude so hard his teeth fell out” and the “I did this, I did that, I’m so amazing”, etc. I thought the world building for this book was interesting. It took me a while to figure out what time period had inspired this fictional world, but eventually—because of the fashion and the weaponry—I decided that it is probably inspired by 1400s Italy. This might be partially because the author and the marketing would try to make you believe that this is a Romeo and Juliet story. Or at least a story of forbidden love. And as cool as it would be to have Romeo and Juliet as assassins, that’s no what this book is about really. It is mainly focused on the revenge storyline as well as the theology of the made up gods and ghosts of the world it takes place in. I’m a little disappointed that this was not more about a shady underworld of assassins and criminals, but I was still invested in the revenge aspect of things. Much less so in the pantheon of wacky deities (the main goddess encourages murder and another god has a priest who who wears a top hat and carries a big glowstick) the characters worship, but you get what you get. The main character, Oleander “Lea” Saldana, was pretty cool. She had lots of weapons, poisons, and a hecking lot of angst (though her angst was totally valid, all things considered). I do think I would have found her more likeable if the book hadn’t been in first person POV, but that’s the case with many books I read. It is just hard for me to get attached to first person perspective characters sometimes. I liked the other main character, Alessio, well enough, but I really wish they hadn’t shortened his name to “Les” because it looks awfully similar to “Lea” and that made things kinda confusing for my poor eyes and brain. The plot didn’t go at all in the direction I was expecting, and while sometimes that was disappointing, for the most part I still enjoyed the path it took and I was left satisfied by the ending. There is a sequel/companion novel about a different character, which I am somewhat interested in, but sometimes it’s nice to just read one book and be done with the world it is set in. So, I’m not sure if I will pick up the second one or not, but if I do then I will let you know. Thanks for reading! I’m off to go polish my bone mask. Until next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21421609-assassin-s-heart Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.77 Content Rating: PG-13 (for violence and a creepy dude) Possible trigger warnings: Rape (nothing actually happens, but the situation is set up). England, 1381: Delia's idyllic life as daughter of an earl is shattered when her father dies and his wife accuses Delia's seven brothers of treason and murder. The youngest is only ten years old, but this doesn't stop the guards from hauling them off to the Tower of London. There they await a grim fate, as child-king Richard II is executing anyone who poses a threat to his throne. Delia is their only hope for pardon and freedom. Sir Geoffrey did not expect his first assignment as captain of the guard to be the arrest of boys so young. He dutifully imprisons the brothers, but he can't ignore the sense, rooted in personal experience, that injustice and treachery are at work. Determined to rescue her brothers, Delia secures a position as a seamstress for the queen. Her quest is all but impossible as the executions continue. Sir Geoffrey offers to be her ally, but should she trust him in a court where everyone has an agenda? (goodreads.com) I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, so thank you to anyone who made that giveaway possible! As usual, I want to start things off by complimenting whoever was in charge of the cover design. I absolutely love the color palette and, of course, the poofy dress. I’m fairly certain that the dress is not historically accurate—or at least not for the situation that Delia found herself in—but it is a lovely dress nonetheless. I was hesitant to start this book, honestly. While I have read books by Melanie Dickerson before and enjoyed parts of them, as a whole they usually aren’t my jam. Her plots are exciting, but her characters are always kind of bland. The protagonists in each of her books are almost indistinguishable from each other and, though they are nice and pleasant people, they make for very boring book characters. I will say that, though I enjoyed this book about ten times more than I enjoyed my last Melanie Dickerson book, the characters were still pretty blah. Delia was kind and sweet and good and Sir Geoffry was noble and honorable and protective. Which could be said of most of the other lead characters in Melanie Dickerson’s other books. Maybe Sir Geoffry wasn’t as moody as the Margrave of Thornbeck (whose name I cannot remember for the life of me) from The Beautiful Pretender, but that’s about where the differences end as far as personality goes. One thing I did like about Delia, or at least relate to, was that she was struggling to trust God with the lives of her brothers. Typically, I feel, Dickerson’s characters do not have this worry. Delia wasn’t always sure that things were going to be okay, she worried that her brothers would be executed and she struggled with trusting that God had a plan for her if her brothers did die. I could relate to that worry and fear and even the distrust at times. It was nice to have something to relate to with the MC in this book, even if she was otherwise sort of boring. Because of Delia’s fear for her brothers and the discussion over if God would save them from execution or not, the book held more suspense for me. Would all of her brothers actually survive? If they didn’t, what would happen to Delia? If they do survive, how would they escape their impending doom? I liked this suspense, though I was a little disappointed with the ending. I won’t say more on that, because of spoilers, but I was sort of hoping for more excitement. The core message of the book, about trusting God, didn’t really wrap up the way I wanted it to either. I don’t think there was any event in the story to really make the points stick. But I will say that the particular message it was trying to convey is what made the book for me and made me stick around to see what happens. So it does have that going for it. To wrap up, I found this book to be more interesting than any of the other Melanie Dickerson books I’ve read, but I am still not a fan of how she writes her characters and if her characters are going to continue to be as flat as they are then I think there need to be some twists in the plot to keep the readers interest. I loved the coziness of knitting and sewing in this book, but since the characters personalities aren't adding anything interesting, I’d really like to see something unexpected happen. Of course, as always, those are just my thoughts on the book and as a whole, I did really enjoy reading this, I just wish the ending had been more satisfying. Well, I’m off to knit seven sweaters! TTFN! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52509575-court-of-swans Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.97 Stars Content Rating: Strong PG-13 (for violence and suggestive content) Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power: 1) Woo the Shadow King. 2) Marry him. 3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself. No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King’s power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what she deserves, and she’s going to do everything within her power to get it. But Alessandra’s not the only one trying to kill the king. As attempts on his life are made, she finds herself trying to keep him alive long enough for him to make her his queen—all while struggling not to lose her heart. After all, who better for a Shadow King than a cunning, villainous queen? (goodreads.com) This one is another read for the Hocus Pocus read-a-thon I am doing this October. It fills a prompt for reading a book about an evil character. Admittedly, Alessandra and the Shadow King are a bit more like anti-heroes than truly evil characters, but between the two of them they do quite a lot of killing and scheming, so we’ll count it. I started off really enjoying this book. It’s quite refreshing to read about a teenage girl who is confident, collected, and has a plan for her life. Even if that plan involves killing the king and taking over the empire. But you know, at least she isn’t spending the whole book debating about which college to go to (not that there's anything wrong with books about girls deciding where they want to go to college, it’s just not my jam these days) or which boy she loves or if she should join the rebellion against the corrupt government. Alessandra is not a good person with a noble cause, she’s a morally gray (dark gray) person with a selfish cause. And that was kind of nice to read about for a change. The book wasn’t what I was expecting. I was anticipating more fantasy elements to it, but the kingdom in this is really more like 1800’s Britain with a magical teenage king. There really isn’t any magic in it, save for the king’s shadows, which disappointed me a bit. The world the story takes place in reminds me of the world in The Betrothed by Kiera Cass. Very posh, kind of a snooty world of nobles, a young king, lots of focus on clothing, and most of the discussion amongst the cast of characters is about marriage arrangements and monetarily beneficial matrimony. Actually, it reminded me a lot of The Betrothed, but with more vicious characters. Even though the story wasn’t what I was expecting, it had me hooked and I didn’t want to put the book down most of the time. I probably would have given it four stars or so, but it was rather too steamy for my tastes. I don’t mind romance, but once they start taking off clothes I start skimming to the next part of the story. So, for my personal rating I had to take off a star. I didn’t even feel that bad about taking the star off after I read page 301 because I was somewhat appalled by the double standard that the characters set. Alessandra was talking with her gal pals about romantic interests and stuff like that. Then she asked Friend 1 if she’d slept with the man she was interested in yet. Friend 1 replied that she wanted to wait until they were married and Alessandra and Friend 2 applauded this even though it wasn’t what they would have chosen. Then they asked if the beau of Friend 1 was pressuring her into sleeping with him, ready to take up arms and beat up the dude if he was (which was great, yay). Friend 1 replied that no, he wasn’t pressuring her at all and then they switched the subject to Friend 2 and her boyfriend and if they’d slept together yet. Friend 2 replied wistfully that no, her boyfriend wanted to wait until they were married too, but then Alessandra and Friend 1 didn’t say something like “oh okay, that’s his choice, if that’s not what you want then maybe you should find someone who wants the same thing you want”. No, no, they didn’t say that it was okay like they had said for Friend 1, they started talking about ways that Friend 2 could pressure her boyfriend into sleeping with her before they got married. And, like, I don’t know if that was some sort of social commentary, trying to flip the gender rolls or what, but I did not like it. And sure, they said that he was probably just waiting for marriage because he wanted to make sure that Friend 2 wouldn’t regret being with him or whatever, but we didn’t hear him say that. I don’t mean to go on a rant about one page in the book, but geesh, page 301 kinda made me dislike all three main girl characters and their double standards. Okay, that rant over with, let’s talk about the Shadow King. He was not as villainous as I was hoping. He was actually a pretty sweet guy with the occasional violent outburst. He also was not as mysterious as I thought he was going to be, but that may be because I was expecting him to be like the Darkling from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. Cuz shadows and darkness and all that. But he was more like Mr. Darcy than Mr. Darkling, but if Mr. Darcy was okay with stabbing people when they don’t do their jobs. I actually imagined the Shadow King with the voice of Mr. Darcy from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie for most of the book. I did really enjoy most of this book and I liked most of the characters most of the time, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. The whole thing was much less dark and mysterious than I thought it would be, but it turned out pretty great anyway. Another nice thing about it, though, is that it was a stand alone, which is rare with fantasy stories (even though there wasn’t a ton of fantasy in this one). However, if a sequel were ever written I would probably read it. Okie dokie, that’s the end of this review. I’d better go woo a king so I can murder him and take over a kingdom. Ta-ta for now! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35702241-the-shadows-between-us?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=w4581jmHIj&rank=1 Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Rating: 2.99 Stars Content Rating: PG-13 (for violence mostly) The young king of Coroa has never been the type to settle down—that is, until he meets Hollis Brite. Hollis has grown up at Keresken Castle among the other daughters of nobility who hoped beyond hope that they’d catch the king’s eye. So when King Jameson declares his love for her, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. But she soon realizes that along with the extravagant presents and fawning attention, this new life brings outsized expectations—expectations that make her wonder if she’s really cut out for life as a royal. With a visit from the king of Isolte on the horizon, Hollis sees a chance to prove to Jameson—and herself—that she has what it takes to be queen. But when she meets an Isolten stranger with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she wants is one she never dared to dream of. (goodreads.com) This is one of those times where I enjoyed a thing, but I still realize that the thing is… less than great. But I promise I will do my best to be as harshly critical as I always am. I promise. Anywho, some of you may have heard of the controversial book series called The Selection by the same author of this book right here that I’m reviewing today. The Selection was controversial mostly because the main character, America (like that was the girl’s name, the USA was not a teenage girl in this story), was very annoying and the book was also very cliche and trope-filled. However, I mostly enjoyed the first book in the series, even if the other two did drag on a bit. It was kind of a guilty pleasure read for me and this one was the same way. I really enjoy reading about court intrigues and this book had plenty of nobility plotting secret plots to secure their position in the palace. It was just the sort of thing I like in a book about made up kings and queens. I’m also a sucker for descriptions of fancy dresses and The Betrothed had plenty of that, which made me a happy camper. However… the romance in this book was seriously the worst. It involves your standard YA love triangle with one girl and two guys vying for her heart, which is fine. Whatever. Love triangles are not great, but by this point I’m used to it. The worst part about this love triangle was that it also involved insta-love. And it may be the worst case of insta-love that I have ever seen. Since the whole plot of this book revolves around the love triangle I can’t give away too much, but MY GOODNESS THESE KIDS DO FALL IN LOVE FAST. Like, we barely even get to know these guys and they barely know Hollis, the MC, but they're both comparing her to the sun within, like, fifteen minutes. I’m exaggerating, but only slightly. Hollis was an okay character. She was just kind of bland and not that exciting and a bit annoying. I did like that she could easily make friends with the other female characters because that was a really nice change of pace from your usual romantic story where all other girls are the enemy except the one quirky/sassy/ethnic BFF (in this case there was a disreputable BFF, but Hollis still had a couple of other friends, which was nice). Jameson was pretty selfish and focused on himself and his own goals and he was kind of flat. Very shiny. Very kingly. Everyone made a big deal about how he didn’t laugh much except when Hollis made him laugh, but he laughed at even the lamest of her jokes so I feel like that can’t be true. Silas was your standard love interest with little else to add to his personality. He could make swords and he wasn’t one of those other nobles who just sat around all day. He worked hard and had opinions about things. Woo, what a man. Also he had blue eyes, which seemed very important for some reason. That’s everything I remember about him without going into spoilers. I did like the character of Valentina and that she didn’t stay a snooty royal for very long. I felt bad for her and her situation and I wish there had been more of her back story and of her interacting with Hollis and her friends. I felt like the pacing of this book was good until the last third of it when everything sped up really fast and we had all of the major happenings crammed into the last bit. I felt like this whole book was actually just the first half of a longer book and not a book in its own right. It felt like a backstory or an extremely long prologue to whatever is going to happen in the second book. Speaking of the second book, I am extremely curious to know what is going to happen in it and in the spoiler section of this review I’m going to give you my best guess. For now, I really enjoyed The Betrothed even if it wasn’t necessarily a good book and I wish I didn’t have to wait so long for the sequel. By this point, I’m pretty sure Kiera Cass is the queen of writing stories that aren’t “good” literature, but hook many readers just the same. I’m not sure how she does it, but I hope she continues for quite a while! To read my thoughts on some spoilery stuff, click the “Read More” button in the lower right hand corner of this post. Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.8 Stars Content Rating: Strong PG-13 Rowena Duncan is a thoroughly modern girl with big plans for her summer—until she catches her boyfriend making out with another girl. Heartbroken, she applies to an out-of-town job posting and finds herself somewhere she never expected: the Renaissance Faire. As a face-painter doubling as a serving wench, Ro is thrown headfirst into a vibrant community of artists and performers. She feels like a fish out of water until Will, a quick-witted whip cracker, takes her under his wing. Then there’s Christian, a blue-eyed stunt jouster who makes Ro weak in the knees. Soon, it’s not just her gown that’s tripping her up. Trading in the internet and electricity for stars and campfires was supposed to make life simpler, but Ro is finding that love is the ultimate complication. Can she let the past make way for her future? (goodreads.com) This is one of the books on my O.W.L.s TBR for this year and also a book that I thought sounded cute after I found it tucked back in the shelves of the library where I worked. The main reason I thought it sounded cute was the Renaissance Faire because. Though I’ve only ever been to a small local one, I love the Renaissance Faire. Seriously, if you’ve never been to one but you love history, or magic, or dressing up, or watching jousting, or eating food, you need to get yourself to the nearest Ren Faire as quickly as you can… provided we don’t all have to be quarantined for the rest of forever and ever. Anyway, I knew this book was a cheesy teen romance going into it, but I was still annoyed by the amount of smooching going on. And maybe it’s because I’ve never experienced any romance myself, but the amount of time the main character, Ro, spends thinking about boys seems unrealistic. Sure, she did spend a good deal of time thinking about her future career, how much she enjoyed art, and how neat the faire was, but I wish that there had been much less kissy-kissy-smooch-bleh stuff and more oh-my-gosh-it’s-the-Ren-Faire stuff. Or even more art stuff. Or thinking about what she wants to major in when she goes to college. I truly enjoyed those parts of the books—not that the romance wasn’t cute too, but there was just so much of it. To the surprise of no one, I loved the setting of the book. King Geoffrey’s Faire sounds like an exciting and joyful place that is on a much grander scale than the Ren Faire I’m used to. Of course, it would not be hard for such an event to be grander than my local “Renaissance Festival and Gathering o’ Celts”, which I’ve learned is rather small as far as this type of event goes. Anyway… I’d better not start talking about faires in general or we could be here all day. But King Geoffrey’s Faire was a really fun setting and I wish that the book had a map in it so I could get a better visual image of the grounds. Everything sounds so bright, colorful, and full of the unique magic of Ren Faires. Rowena “Ro” Duncan is the main character of this book and she has just split with her boyfriend because he cheated on her. That is the event that sparks her summer of working at King Geoffrey’s as a face painter. I enjoyed Ro’s journey through the summer and the rise of confidence that she has… even if it is totally overshadowed by her romantic adventures. I liked learning about her love of art and how she liked making kids at the faire happy. She was a little bit of a basic character, but still mostly relatable (though I can’t say I relate to accepting drinks from strangers at a mysterious bonfire in the woods). Then we have Suze, who is one of Ro’s good friends at the faire. Suze was supposed to be super likeable and a fun person and I think the author really pulled that off well. Suze, despite how flirty and suggestive she was, seems like a fun person to be friends with. She also helped Ro find her confidence, which was great. Christian is the “super hot” knight who works at the faire and who Ro becomes instantly infatuated with. He’s flirty and a smooth talker and not my favorite, but that’s all I’ll say about him. Will is fun. He’s Ro’s other faire bestie and he’s fun and sweet. Another genuinely likeable character who seemed very human. I’ve noticed that the author of this book did a very good job of fleshing out most of the center characters and making them fairly realistic and it was fun to read about them as if they were people I actually knew and can hang out with. I’m not sure if the reason I enjoyed this book so much was just because it was set in a Renaissance Faire and I wish I could have been in the book, or if it was actually a great book. There were plenty of things I disliked about it, like underage drinking and all these presumably college age dudes flirting with a highschool girl, but the fun happy parts generally outweighed the questionable parts. I don’t recommend this book to anyone who dislikes too much romance in their books, but if you don’t mind that or you enjoy it and you like Renaissance faires and festivals then this might be the story for you. Thanks for reading, I’m off to dust of my adventuring boots and my cloak! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17375024-my-faire-lady Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating (pre-release): 4.41 Stars Content Rating: Light R (for language) Trigger Warnings: Abusive parents, suicide is discussed and one of the character has panic attacks frequently. Jubilee has it all together. She’s an elite cellist, and when she’s not working in her stepmom’s indie comic shop, she’s prepping for the biggest audition of her life. Ridley is barely holding it together. His parents own the biggest comic-store chain in the country, and Ridley can’t stop disappointing them—that is, when they’re even paying attention. They meet one fateful night at a comic convention prom, and the two can’t help falling for each other. Too bad their parents are at each other’s throats every chance they get, making a relationship between them nearly impossible…unless they manage to keep it a secret. Then again, the feud between their families may be the least of their problems. As Ridley’s anxiety spirals, Jubilee tries to help but finds her focus torn between her fast-approaching audition and their intensifying relationship. What if love can’t conquer all? What if each of them needs more than the other can give? (goodreads.com) Before we get into this review, I want to mention that I won an ARC copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway. So, thank you very much to Goodreads and whoever set up this giveaway! With that out of the way, I am wondering where to start with this review. I have so much I want to say about this book, but I can’t say everything on my mind because of spoilers. I think the thing I want to start off saying is that this book is so much more than your typical contemporary teen romance. Although to be fair, I don’t read a ton of contemporary teen romances so I might not be the best judge of that. But I think I can say that this is so much more than a romantic retelling of Romeo and Juliet. And maybe I’m just saying that because I love comic books and superheroes and this book makes many references to characters that I love, but it also deals with mental health issues, issues of abusive parents, and issues of identity. It touches on what makes healthy relationships and where relationships can go wrong. And yeah, it does have a couple of comic loving geeks in it and some sweet-sappy romance in it, but it’s also way more than that. I think I gave you too much information at once. Maybe I should have waited a little longer after reading it to write this, but I have so many thoughts on this book and I need to write them down while they are still fresh. Anyway, Verona Comics, as you might have figured out, is loosely based off of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (I don’t know why I put down “William Shakespeare’s”, we all know who wrote that stinking play). A boy who is the son of the guy who runs a giant comic book publishing company meets a girl who is the stepdaughter of a woman who runs an indie comic book store and they have feelings for each other, how could their families ever allow it?! Like I said, it is loosely based off of the whole star-crossed-lovers mess by Bill. The two MCs have the same first initials as Juliet and Romeo, and there are a few characters that I can see fitting as characters like the Nurse and Friar Laurence, and there are some similar plot points, but it is definitely its own story (thank goodness for that). Not that I don’t absolutely love the classic tragic play about two teenagers becoming infatuated with each other, causing a slew of deaths, and ultimately deciding that they cannot live if they can’t be together, but I don’t love it. It’s not my jam, but no offense to you if you love it, you can like what you like. I personally prefer this book, Verona Comics, about two teenagers falling in love and learning how to deal with depression and anxiety in both unhealthy and healthy ways and also learning how to love themselves along the way and making a ton of comic references. Okay, with that out of the way, let’s talk characters. First we have Jubilee. The synopsis of this book sort of made me think that Jubilee was going to be your average overachiever character who talks about “oh my gosh, I must be perfect or I will die and my whole life is focused on academics”, which she is occasionally. However, she is also open to trying to get out of her perfectionist bubble and living life a little, which I like. It makes her less robotic than I was expecting. And, unlike other characters who tend to be perfectionists, she doesn’t completely give up on her dreams. I also like how, even when she is rebelling a bit, she still respects her two moms and doesn’t go full on obnoxious brat. She could be an irritating character at some points, but she still felt authentic and relatable. Then there is Ridley. This poor boy needs all of the hugs. All of them. He is, in a nutshell, a mess. His parents are disgusting, he has no friends, he has to handle falling behind in school, and on top of everything else he also has depression and anxiety. As I said, he needs hugs and warm cookies. Now, maybe I read the synopsis wrong, but when it said he keeps disappointing his parents I was very much picturing a “bad boy” character who gets into trouble for fun and to get attention. I did not realize that by “disappointing his parents” the book meant his parents are stupid poopy brains who treat their son like dirt because of his mental health and the fact that he’s bisexual. Can someone please transport me into this book so that I can personally slap Ridley’s parents in the face? They deserve it because they make their son feel so terrible and when he tries to get help they make him feel worse and I would really like to punch them. Thank you. I may have derailed for a minute there. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, characters. The rest of the characters of this book are exciting, fun, fairly diverse, occasionally unrealistic, possibly have a tendency to lean toward the trope-y at times, but as a whole pretty likeable. Except, of course, Ridley’s parents. Now, I could probably say more about this book, but it is past my bedtime and I don’t want to spoil things for you if you decide to read it. So today we shall leave it at that. If you are interested in reading Verona Comics by Jennifer Dugan its expected release date is April 21st, 2020. Well, I’m off to my local comic book store to browse (not really because they aren’t open this late), thanks for reading and I hope to see you next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51901322-verona-comics?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=4wOMyeNgjW&rank=1
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