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DNF’d Ana Huang’s The Striker 😭 Mini-review below...

You can look at this one of two ways:

1) This was not good in the sense that there’s no magic, characters are flat, the romance has zero chemistry and the book drags on like a torturous game of “when will this get interesting”.

OR

2) This was great if you are having trouble sleeping. Just take 1 melatonin gummy and start this from the beginning. That’s the real magic right there.

DNF @ 15%

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Night Triumphant and the Stars Eternal

🎨art by giannyfili on IG

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“i can talk about whatever ships and won't get flak as long as it's not illegal.”

idk how to tell you this, but no fictional ship is illegal. not a single one.

“well, in real life this ship —”

idk how to tell you this, but fictional ships are not real life. they're fake. little dolls you smush together. that's it.

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idek why I am like this honestly

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Author’s dedication from Forged in Fire 🔥🐉

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Can we please make “strong”, “rebellious” and “aggressive” female main character archetype have just a crumble of common sense too? JUST A MORSEL? PLEASE?

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Mini review for Undead Gods… 3/5⭐️

Hmm…

So I think the most difficult part I had with this was the pacing. It was slooow. The overly-wordy writing style didn’t help these matters. I also started to get annoyed whenever there was dialogue and we would suddenly be transported to an afterthought tangent moment for several paragraphs (if not pages) and then, just as suddenly, be brought back to the present. I found that very distracting and difficult to stay engaged.

I also noted it took nearly 400 pages to meet the star of the show. And what an entrance. But 400 pages?? I feel like so much could have been cut from the beginning without taking away too much from the story. I honestly was starting to get stressed just trying to see if it would ever happen.

Everything else was pretty good though. The political scheming and court nuances were interesting but mostly lacked the cunning planning I typically like. Still good though. I didn’t really find any of that too predictable.

I thought Elysia was a well developed character with all her strengths and her flaws (her overconfidence being one). I was also REALLY, REALLY intrigued by “Aidan” and wanted to see more of him from his first scene. Heck even Topp had an interesting character arc and story.

I may read the next one just to see what happens, if the pacing is a little better.

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The guilt that comes with DNF’ing a book.

And then the despair that comes with DNF’ing an indie book.

Depression.

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“Rhysand has been high lord for centuries and he’s done nothing for the Illyrian women” um… no? That’s the exact opposite of what’s written in the books. Rhysand’s father was an asshole who didn’t care to do anything no matter how much his mate begged him to. Rhysand is the one who’s actually trying to stop wing-clipping and giving the females the opportunity to train. The Illyrians took advantage of his 50-year imprisonment and the absence of Azriel and Cassian from the war camps and started treating the females even more harshly. He literally says that he, Cassian and Azriel hunted down and killed many of them when he returned. Of course he can’t do anything instantaneously, and change always takes time, because the Illyrians are a big part of the NC army and war was coming. He couldn’t risk half his army in a time like this. It would only make things worse for the entirety of the Night Court, not just Illyria. Now that the war with Hybern is over Cassian is in the war camps trying to handle the situation—who do you think gave him the order to do that?

I can assure you, the Illyrian women (at least most of them) think more highly of Rhys than any previous high lord.

I’m surprised by this fandom every day—you’re reading books that are targeted towards 16+ year-olds, I assume you have basic reading comprehension skills but I suppose that’s too much to ask for these days…

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Feysand from ACOTAR✨ To the stars who listen - and the dreams that are answered✨

Characters belong to @therealsjmaas

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Spectacular mini-review … 5/5 ⭐️

Super cuuuute. Tella x Legend fans will be happy with this novella (I certainly was squealing).

The illustrations really added to the merriment of the story. And dang, they made Scarlett and Julian so pretty! Scarlett in her empress dress was gorgeous.

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I just reada really good fic but halfway through I realized "oh shit this is really familiar.... didn't I write something like this once?" And as I kept reading I kept predicting what happened next and the further I went the more convinced I was that they'd ripped off my story-

like, copied the ENTIRE plot and re-written it, just better than I had? The characters were more fleshed-out than mine were, and the POV was more interesting, and the pace made more sense- but it was MY STORY?

So close to the end I was like "holy shit.. do I message them? Ask if my story inspired theirs? Should I be angry? Flattered?" Cause their tags and description didn't mention me AT ALL, which, sure, it's fanfiction to begin with, but if you're using my work than at least credit me as inspo, right? Just to be courteous?

But I get to the end of the final chapter, and it's not finished, and I'm kind of disappointed cause I never finished my story and I was really immersed in their version now and had been looking forwards to seeing how they tied up my loose ends- so I scroll to the bottom to leave a comment, and.

It's MY URL.

IT WAS MY STORY THE WHOLE TIME.

THE ONE *I WROTE*.

In *2013*.

And FORGOT ABOUT

BECAUSE I WAS SO INSECURE ABOUT MY SLOPPY, SHALLOW, AMETEUR WRITING

And I'm just sitting here now staring into space thinking about every shitty story I've ever written now like

IT WAS ALL GOOD?

IT WAS GOOD THIS WHOLE DAMN TIME??

I'M A GOOD WRITER?????

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ARC Review for Fable for the End of the World... 4/5 ⭐

This was a very interesting story and you can definitely see how Hunger Games influenced the dystopian world created here by Ava Reid. You have a lot of similar themes: a single entity or company controlling the vast majority of society. Class stratification takes a big role here in particular. All the wealthy congregate in the major cities, given the very best technologies, medicines, and benefits while everyone else in the outer areas (aka the 'Outliers') are just trying to survive and avoid crippling debt. At the same time, debt is how this society is run and used to exploit its lower class citizens.

There are also a lot of subtle nods to current pop culture and some of the negatives surrounding how we treat folks on the other side of a screen, for example. E.g. using livestreams/influencers as part of the commentary. I thought that was particularly cool.

Funnily enough, the only other story I read by Ava was a Study In Drowning which had a peculiar fascination with water and flooding. This one shares a lot of similarities except the flooding and water-logged cities are due to climate change and a vastly changing dystopian world trying its best to adapt to said changes and nuclear corruption.

I also found it fascinating how Ava crafted the stories behind the assassins aka the not-quite android not-quite human killing machines and how easy it was to sympathize with their plight and backgrounds.

Where I struggled was the love story. I didn't feel particularly drawn to either Mel nor Inessa as a couple. There was also a period of time where I felt myself getting bored when it was just the two of them (Mel and Inessa) and wanted to see more action. I feel like there could have been more happening while their relationship was beginning to blossom vs the stagnant "wait" period I felt we were being forced to sit through.

Despite that, I do think this is Ava's best work and the world is one of the most interesting I have come across in a while. I think my favorite part that kept me wanting to know more was the relationship between Inessa and her brother Luka. In fact, I felt the stronger love story was the story between the two siblings. The love Luka had for Inessa and vice-versa flourished despite their odds of success and it was hope that drove them forward along with the shared love for their father.

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Oh my goodness. I just finished The Thirteenth Child. 5/5⭐️

The first 20-30% is interesting but nothing too special. But it gets better as it goes on. Similar vibes to ODW.

Now I am sitting here, teary-eyed with a swollen heart, just trying to put simple thoughts together.

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Dancing Under the Mountain

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My roman empire is that people forget that Feyre was attracted to Rhys IMMEDIATELY, before she saw anything good in him. In ACOFAS, she admits she wanted him even UTM. In other words, she saw him at his CoN-est, was in love with Tam, and still couldn't help herself. So, she and Rhys don't have such a complicated, ambivalent relationship for so long because Rhys is morally grey. They have a complicated relationship because Feyre doesn't know how to rationalize caring about someone who's so morally grey. ACOMAF isn't about Feyre suddenly thinking Rhys is a saint. ACOMAF is about her coming to accept and respect Rhys because, after her own experiences UTM, she identifies with and understands his moral ambiguity. Whether or not she and Rhys are equally morally dubious is a different conversation, but basically, accepting and loving Rhys is also Feyre loving and accepting herself.

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