cossty's reviews
534 reviews

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Maybe I went into this with the wrong expectations. I was expecting something different.

Not to mention that the most interesting thing to me, trying to solve the murder of a person which you have the younger version of in your head, was thrown out of the window in like a second chapter.

This book didn't really feel like a sci-fi book. People are still using physical mail, buying tickets for a train, etc.

Still pretty enjoyable read and I might pick up the sequel, but no promises.

Master of Iron by Tricia Levenseller

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I was pleasantly surprised with this. I even put this book down after like 5% because it looked like it wasn't for me and I picked some other book. When I came back, it almost immediately started to be more interesting.
I usually don't like time traveling in stories because most likely than not, it's not implemented very well.
If I thought about time travelling in this book harder, I would probably found some plotholes here too. But I feel like time travelling is not the main point of this story and it is just a vehicle to help get the overall picture.

Mother of Learning: Arc 4 by Domagoj Kurmaić

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I really like the ending and conclusion with different POVs.

But the first two thirds of the book were not my thing, boring and uninteresting, mostly because main character was already too op my opinion. It was similar in third book too.

I really liked the first book and the second was still very good but after that, the novelty of the time loop disappeared and it got kind of annoying to me. This series should be two books or three at most.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

He is an asshole.
She is constantly horny.
He is toxic.
She is crybaby.

I read this type of story countless times. It was very predictable. At the start I was really hopeful because she has a disability and I thought it would be better used. Later, it is barely mentioned.

When she was bonding with her dragon, there was something I have never seen before, and again I was hopeful, but it was completely under-utilized.

Last third of the book turned to trashy smut.

This is probably the only book with dragons and dragonriders I have read where dragons take the back seat. The author somehow made a book about dragons pretty boring.

Long story short, very average romantasy.

Content Warnings

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I wasn't expecting to doubt my very existence after finishing this book.

This book stayed on my to read list for a very long time because after finishing the Children of Ruin, which was still good but it was nowhere near as good as the first book, I didn't have high expectations for another sequel.

After finishing this book though, I am thinking of saying that I liked it even more than the first book, Children of Time. Maybe it is recently bias because I read the first book a long time ago. Either way, this book is amazing and exceeded all of my expectations. I was never bored for a second. It is a really different book from the first two, so I understand if it's not everybody's cup of tea.

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced