#monthly book reviews

[jjspina]

Books Read and Reviewed in November 2024!

Here it is already the end of another month. Where does the time go? I have been busy as usual reading some wonderful books for the month of November of 2024. Here are the 8 books I read and reviewed for November. I might have read even more if I didn’t have a few WIP. But I always seemed to have a WIP! That fact never stops me! I hope you enjoy reading these reviews. I love sharing my eclectic…

[violetsonnets]

fall tbr

[theflyingpimphat]

With one vote for it, I guess I will. It will be one post covering one month, starting from the beginning of this year. Titles will be above the cut to save space, reviews below. Might contain spoilers.

January 2024

Alien Chronicles - The Crystal Eye; Das Arkonadia-Rätsel

Alien Chronicles - The Crystal Eye, Deborah Chester

Language: English

Synopsis: Ampris, former pet of the emperor's heir, retired gladiator and survivor of medical experimentation, mostly just tries to survive with her gang of freed slaves and her children. But the ongoing drought and environmental deterioration bring them to the capital, where the final rebellion against the Viis and their empress is mounted.

Review: The final book of a trilogy, I found the conclusion rather lackluster. The methods used to "convince" the Viis to let the slaves go didn't appear to be particularly efficient and seemed to harm the rebels more than their enemies. Also, there are the implications of what happens to what is left behind, as the most likely outcome is that all the slaves not on the escaping ship will just continue to be enslaved while the Viis empire either might get its shit together, or fall apart completely. It would have been nice to at least see that part instead of just "chosen lucky group managed to escape their opressors forever and can build up a new life".

Das Arkonadia-Rätsel, Andreas Brandhorst

Language: German

Synopsis: Jasper and Jasmine, two biologically altered humans working for the galactic government organisation Omni, are tasked to examine an anomaly periodically appearing on Arkonadia and disabling all technology in its wake, resulting in wars for power that hinder the planet's societies from progressing. At the same time, Zirzo, an aged tool-builder is forced to accompany a general who wants his son to succesfully enter the anomaly and reach its centre, as this would make him the planet's regent, and the tools are essential for surviving the anomaly.

Review: The second novel of a series, the first one of which I hadn't read. It worked perfectly fine as a standalone novel as well, as anything important was explained. It's well-visible that the author is skilled and the story is well-crafted; I did enjoy Zirzo's plot and the anomaly. The only minor complaints I have is that if Balthasar's story was true, it would have made Omni more ambiguous rather than having it be the white-vested, good organisation, which would have made for a more interesting narrative, and that it was once again the bug aliens who got done dirty.

With me trying to reduce my ever-growing literary pile of shame by finishing at least two books per month, is anyone interested in me doing brief reviews of them? It's sci-fi and fantasy for the most part.

[literatureaesthetic]

june '24 favs:

a storm of swords ; george r r martin — third book in the 'a song of ice and fire' series, and it may just be my fav instalment yet. i was left utterly speechless over the plot twists in here. one of the best examples of modern fantasy.

the lost daughter ; elena ferrante — it's elena ferrante, of course it's on this list. an intimate character study of leda, a divorcee who suddenly finds herself with zero responsibilities after her daughters move away. a poignant, visceral look into motherhood (girlies with mummy issues, tread with caution😭)

giovanni's room ; james baldwin — the iconic gay, parisian classic. this was my first baldwin, and it's definitely not going to be my last. i haven't been this enthralled by the writing in a classic since 'the picture of dorian gray'. beautiful, gut-wrenching, a must-read for anyone into the classics!!

[blottyink]

My August Reads Ranked

1. One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig: This was by far my favorite read this month. I love this book. I love it more than I love The Folk of the Air. More than the Dark Rise series. More than Captive Prince. Because it has EVERYTHING. The plot, the magic system, the characters, the writing, all of it is as equally good as the rest. Even though at the ending there’s a twist that’s sad, I was still EXCITED to see what happens next (more hype than sad). I root for the Nightmare too. “Long live the King.” The writing is show don’t tell and I fucking LOVE IT. I FUCKING LOVE IT. I am so tired of seeing a lot of telling in story books, and all my favs serve show.

2. Bunny by Mona Awad: This wasn’t as dark as I thought it was going to be, but it won me over with the writing. It’s clever, dark and hilarious. Samantha’s dilemma with the bunnies was relatable for me, especially the first smut salon she attends. It was a fun ride, and I enjoyed this book for reasons I wasn’t expecting to. The way Awad describes feelings is spectacular.

3. The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black: It was good to be back in Elfhame. I liked Prisoner’s Throne more than Stolen Heir because, of course, Jude and Cardan. I thought Wren and Oak’s story was cute and I had a fun time reading it, but I’m not over Jude and Cardan yet and that’s all I want.

4. The Stolen Heir by Holly Black: At first, I was a bit put off by how Jude-like Wren was, and how Cardan-like Oak was, but I had a good time. If Black wants to go back and write scenes showcasing Jude and Cardan falling in love, I’m all for that. Would love to see the two of them snuggling by a fire.

5. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King: I knew I’d like this because every time I watch King speak, he’s fun. He’s fun to listen to, he’s fun to read. He’s at his best when he’s shooting the shit. This was a good time.

6. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: I love the dialogue in this, it can be interpreted in different ways and it’s exciting to think about. I’ve never read anything as quotable as this book. I lived for every time Dorian threw himself on a couch in a fit of angst.

7. The Corsair’s Captive by Ruby Dixon: Dixon never lets me down. It’s another cozy, fun sci-fi romance with the big blue dudes. I have to read her shifter smut; it’s going to be everything.  

8. The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr: I appreciated how blunt this book was, and the information provided was interesting. If you’re looking for a book about why humans tell stories as well as scientific reasons why you should have an existential crisis. This is the one.

9. Victor by Brianna West: The most egregious offense to me was the smut. Because. How are you screwing an Angel, and it’s vanilla? No mention of where his wings are? Nothing special about his equipment? Only fucks in missionary? They could fuck in the air, but we’re going to sidestep that? Other than that the world-building wasn’t there for me, and the writing was a whole lot of telling. The adverb intense descriptions didn’t land for me, and I didn’t care about any of the characters. The fmc was annoying.

10. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton: Zade is so Neil Breen coded. Like, if I found out Breen wrote this character for Carlton, it would make a lot of sense. I hate this book. I don’t know why I do this to myself.  

The books I'm most stoked to read in September are: Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cordova, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett and Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig.

[rlbookreviews]

What book are you currently reading now? I need to add some more books to my TBR list.

[garadinervi]

Amilcar Cabral, Unity and Struggle. Speeches and Writings, Texts selected by the PAIGC, Translated by Michael Wolfers, with an Introduction by Basil Davidson and Biographical Notes by Mário de Andrade, Monthly Review Press, New York, NY, and London, 1979

[she-karev]

📚July Book Review📚

4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“But the truth is, also, simply this: love is indomitable.”

For the month of Independence Day I thought a romance with themes of our country might be a good book to read. And boy was it ever. This is the perfect comfort read for the entire queer community. It's got humor, it's got romance and it's got a little angst in it to keep you at the edge of your seat. We all love a rivals to lovers trope and seeing it between the First Son of The United States and the Prince of England is Chef's kiss. The main characters are enchanting in their own unique way and their chemistry ignites in the pages. The supporting characters are interesting as well as they provide humor that made me laugh. The world the book is set in has a more optimistic and liberal atmosphere than the real world but there's behind the scene politics that are accurate to what we hear on the news. All in all this book begs the ancient question, 'Can love conquer all?'

[gcantread]

July 2024 reads

[loved liked ok nope dnf bookclub*]

^borrowing this format from @ofliterarynature—hope that's ok!

The Blue Castle • The Metamorphosis • A Reaper at the Gates • And Then There Were None • I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons • To Be Taught, If Fortunate • The Mysterious Affair at Styles • Till We Have Faces • This Ravenous Fate • Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch • Dragonhaven • [title withheld; SMP] • The Name of the Wind • Better Left Buried • The Body in the Library • Rose Daughter

My biggest reading month so far in terms of quantity, though only third-biggest in terms of "pages" (which I think is a bad metric anyhow—you can typeset them so differently! I wish every book told me its word count.) I read a lot of books in order to see if they're worth reading in @bellasbookclub for the 2024-2025 season, plus I was doing the BBC summer reading challenge! I also devoured my way through several ARCs coming out in August.

The Blue Castle ★★★★★ - I reread this once or twice per year at this point. This time around I read it to @flowerslut and we had a blast! Still the ultimate comfort read.

The Metamorphosis ★★★☆☆ - Also with Shannon (we listened to the audiobook on the way to and from San Diego!) Figured it was high time I actually read this if I was gonna go around calling things "kafkaesque." Somehow exactly what I expected.

And Then There Were None ★★★★☆ - Pre-screened for book club! So I don't wanna say too much other than "I liked it."

I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons ★★★☆☆ - Disappointing. Plot was a bit all over the place and it was difficult to sympathize with the main characters. A shame, because I like the premise!

To Be Taught, If Fortunate ★★★★☆ - Read for the BBC 2024 Summer Reading Challenge. Fun and reflective! This was my first time reading Becky Chambers, and I liked the writing style and themes.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles ★★★1/2☆ - Another book club pre-screen. A solid mystery.

Till We Have Faces ★★★★☆ - Yet another book club pre-screen. My best friend's favorite book and now I can totally see why.

This Ravenous Fate ★★★☆☆ - An ARC I got signed by the author after seeing her speak on a panel about YA and romance. Unfortunately a huge letdown, possibly because I had such high hopes for the premise of "queer Black 1920s vampire x human." Alas, it had some cool vampire lore but was overall a convoluted mess and not nearly 1920s-enough!

Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch ★★★★☆ - Another ARC I got from the same event and liked much better. Cool Jennifer's Body-esque premise, snappy voice, and a fun protagonist in the murdered and vengeful Annie. Perfect Halloween vibes!

Dragonhaven ★★★★☆ - Also pre-screened for book club so I shouldn't talk too much about it but I can't help myself (@ book club LOOK AWAY) I wasn't expecting much from this book because I've heard Robin McKinley fans voice their disappointment in it, but it turns out I'm the exact niche target audience for this. National Park politics and conservation science struggles and zookeeping?? I'm seated. I can see why others didn't like the pacing, but I was nodding along like "Yes, the difficulty of procuring grad students to come study dragons, of course. Do go on"

[title withheld; SMP] - I didn't realize this was an SMP book until I was halfway through it. Oops. A shame they still don't have their act together, because I'd love to talk about this one.

The Name of the Wind ★★★★★ - A title I've heard raved about a million times by a zillion people, so naturally I picked it as one of my BBC 2024 summer reading challenge books to see if it lived up to the hype. IMO it does! Fun, poetic writing style, cool framing device, and interesting worldbuilding and magic system. Curious to read the sequel.

Better Left Buried ★★★☆☆ - Another ARC. Cute queer YA murder mystery that I honestly don't have much to say about other than "it was cute."

The Body in the Library ★★★1/2☆ - And another book club pre-screen book. My first Miss Marple! Mostly elevated by having an interesting ending twist and class themes.

Rose Daughter ★★★☆☆ - And to no one's surprise, my final book of the month was also pre-screening for Bella's Book Club. Very pretty writing and it was fun to read while wearing a bit of rose oil (smell-o-vision!) but I didn't loooove the pacing and overall prefer Robin McKinley's other Beauty and the Beast retelling, Beauty.

DNF

A Reaper at the Gates (50%) - I sprinted through book 1 and walked sedately through book 2 of the Ember in the Ashes series, but this one (book 3) was taking me forever to read (and is almost 700 pages), and I was impatient to move on and read other stuff. Reaper at the Gates was decently interesting and I still care about the characters, but the timing just wasn't right. Will probably pick this series back up later.

July superlatives

[fictionadventurer]

Many men had offered her many things in the past, love and friendship, luxury and jewels, entertainment, dogs, amusements, homage--some she had accepted, some refused, but no man before had offered her work. Peter had offered her that, he had offered her a share of his--not noble or inspiring or fascinating work, just his work, what he had. He had offered it her, called her great energies into play, and set her to work beside himself in a furrow. And she was glad; for some reason she found it very good.

--Desire by Una Lucy Silberrad

[bigdreamsandwildthings]

August Wrap-Up

The Bright Sword (Lev Grossman) ★★★★

Vengeful (V.E. Schwab) (audio) ★★★1/2

Hopeless (Elsie Silver) ★★★

She's Not Sorry (Mary Kubica) (audio) ★★★★

Tress of the Emerald Sea (Brandon Sanderson) ★★★★

I Hope This Finds You Well (Natalie Sue) (audio) ★★★★

Night of the Witch (Sara Raasch & Beth Revis) ★★★1/2

What Have You Done? (Shari Lapena) (audio) ★★★★

Not In Love (Ali Hazelwood) ★★★★

Fangirl, The Manga Volume 4 (Rainbow Rowell & Gabi Nam) ★★★★

The Prisoner's Throne (Holly Black) ★★★

Not a five-star read to be had this month which is disappointing for me! Usually I am pretty generous with my ratings. Here's hoping for better as we head into the best months of the year. Find me over on Goodreads (linked) for more detailed reviews.

[jjspina]

Books Read and Reviewed in October 2024!

Here it is already the end of another month. Where does the time go? I have been busy as usual reading some wonderful books for the month of October of 2024. Here are the 12 books I read and reviewed for October. I might have read even more if I didn’t have a few WIP. But I always seemed to have a WIP! That fact never stops me! I hope you enjoy reading these reviews. I love sharing my eclectic…

[violetsonnets]

my tbr pile for june! i got a concussion this weekend and haven’t been able to read the last couple of days so i’ve been cranky.

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

August Monthly Recap:

August was a pretty chill month for me, all things considered, and that meant I spent a lot of time playing games and watching TV and being on vacation, not as much reading books. I read 13 books in August, of which Broken Homes was my favorite (I'm glad I finally got back to the Rivers of London series, I'm really enjoying them!).

The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen: 4/5

Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee: 3.5/5

Grit by Elizabeth Hunter: 4/5

The Labyrinth Gate by Kate Elliott: 4.25/5

Sweet by Elizabeth Hunter: 4.25/5

Lady Elizabeth's Comet by Sheila Simonson: 4.25/5

The Night Off by Meghan O'Brien: 4.25/5

Provenance by Ann Leckie: 4/5

Devil's Gun by Cat Rambo: 3.5/5

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch: 4.25/5

Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch: 4.5/5

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch: 4.75/5

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi: 4.25/5

Update on yearly goals under the cut:

Complete series: -2 for the year (+1)

Catch up on backlists: 27 (+1)

Read FIYAH/Nebula/Hugo finalists & awards: 9 books (+1)

Read down TBR: at end of August it’s 1546 (-4!!! for the first time it's going down!!!!! I started doing a thing where I sample books that are only available digitally at my library to see if I actually want to read them and it's working!!!)

Read old top-of-TBR list: 4 (+1)

[literatureaesthetic]

march '24 favs:

• those who leave and those who stay & the story of the lost child ; elena ferrante — the final two books in the neapolitan novels, a tetrology recording the lives of two girls in naples from childhood to old age. gutting, beautiful, layered, and complex. this series is a masterpiece, elena ferrante is everything to me <3 (please read it!!)

• sirens and muses by antonia angress — following an array of characters at an art university as they navigate life, work, academia, relationships, and being an artist in a capitalist world where everything is commodified. the depth of characters paired with the nuanced discussions of art, class, and politics left me so pleasantly surprised. (it's also extremely gay and perfect for all you tumblr users with mummy/daddy issues)

[blottyink]

My July Reads Ranked

I don't see myself finishing a book in the next two days.

Prince's Gambit by C.S. Pacat: It's one of the best books I've ever read.

King's Rising by C.S. Pacat: It's my cousin, Charls!

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

The Tyrant Alpha's Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells: This took me by surprise, I did not expect to love this as much as I did. I HATED Killian at the beginning of this book, and by the end of it, all I could do was keep trying to picture his thighs. It was such a fun time. My only gripe with this book was the use of the word cream, but other that, super fun book.

His Curvy Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells: This is the 4th book in this series, and I ended up reading all 5. This was pretty fun, but it didn't quite hit the same as the 1st book.

11/22/63 by Stephen King: I think if my expectations had been lower going into this book, I would have liked it more. But I don't regret reading it.

Barbarian's Rescue by Ruby Dixon: Not my favorite Barbarian book, but I still had a good time.

The Lone Wolf's Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells: This was the 3rd in the series, and I didn't like it. But I liked it more than others. Some of the situations and themes were not it for me. It felt like, after the 2nd book, she started writing for a different audience.

Love Potion for the Alpha by Alice Coldbreath: I read a lot of werewolf smut this month, and this was short and fun. This book is funny.

The Heir Apparent's Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells: The love interests had little to no chemistry; their convos were kind of weird.

The Stone Wolf's Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells: It felt like Wells wanted to write a period piece in the modern world she had already built. It didn't hit for me.

Then, Earth Swallowed Ocean by Shiloh Sloane: I did not like this book, and that's fine. I have an entire shelf and kindle collection dedicated to books I don't like because it's as important as books I do like. It gives me insight into myself, and I like to pick apart everything I read. It's also fun to rant about books I don't like.

I learned this month, that I really like paranormal romances based on fated mates, so next month I'm going to do a fated mate Merman book. I like fantasy books with romance, but I do like political intrigue as well, so I'll be reading The Stolen Heir duology by Holly Black and One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig. I loved the sci-fi elements in 11/22/63, so I'll be reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir because I am so down for an epic sci-fi adventure. I keep trying to read dark romances thinking they'll take, so I'm going to try Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton, but I wouldn't be surprised if I dnfd it.