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425 reviews
Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi
4.0
The much anticipated sequel to Faebound - Cursebound - doesn’t waste any time in getting into the action. With the twist that an elf is able to become faebound to an obeah and another elf becoming the king, tensions are rising within fae society - especially from those who are called “Lightless,” those unable to faebound. In addition to the dangers lurking at home are the dangers present within the elven war, and the revelation that the fae were helping to turn the tide. With the romance between Yeeran and Furi forcing the fae to move out of the elven war, stakes are raised when this risks the fae being exposed.
This book adds another point of view that adds intrigue to the story, and despite Yeeran being separated for a majority of the novel at no point does it feel like an event isn’t necessary. Many times, authors get bogged down with too many pov characters and sometimes we feel like certain perspectives aren’t needed, or sometimes we’ll leave a high-stakes chapter to read one that feels pointless in comparison. None of that happens in this book, at every point I was engaged and felt like everything that was happening was part of the bigger picture - from Lettle’s discoveries, to Yeeran’s capture, to the very present danger lurking around every corner from every character. I also loved how it was almost impossible to tell who, exactly, was behind the assassination attempts - and yet, it never felt like it wasn’t realistic. It all led to a tension-building reveal where it forces the main characters to acknowledge the buildup of problems as tensions rise and the death count rises.
Second books in trilogies are notoriously difficult to do, but I feel like with both of her trilogies Saara El-Arifi is able to improve her world building and raise the anticipation for how this series will end. I enjoyed Cursebound more than I did Faebound (not that I didn’t enjoy Faebound), and I am super excited for the third and final book in this trilogy. This book ends with a highly unexpected plot twist that I cannot wait to see how it will be explored in the finale. If you were looking for a political fantasy with romance, secret assassination plots, and actual conflict between the romantic leads, I’d strongly recommend this trilogy. I cannot wait to see how it ends!
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Random House for providing this e-ARC.
Medea by Eilish Quin
3.5
Medea tells the story of the commonly reviled sorceress Medea from her childhood to after she takes her revenge on Jason in a new light. With new twists and interpretations present within this story, even those familiar with the story of Medea will find themselves surprised by some of the events present in this retelling.
I’ve recently read two separate retellings of Medea, both of which interpreted the character in their own unique ways, but I may be beginning to think that Greek myth retellings may not be entirely for me. While this book was written in an interesting and engaging way, I think the thing it struggled with most was in refusing to allow Medea to be any kind of villain until the story forces the author to have her be one. Instead, for most of this book, there was some kind of explanation that absolved Medea of any guilt or responsibility - either a complete changing of the myth itself, or having her be forced into those actions by the gods/Fate or Jason himself. Medea herself has very little agency within this story - not with her relationship with Jason, her decision to leave Kolchis, nor many of the deaths she causes along the way. In a way, while trying to make Medea more of a sympathetic character she has been stripped of anything interesting about her to instead become a vessel of the story to be told - rather than the architect telling her own story.
I personally think my biggest issue with this book was simply the fact that Medea was, at no point, ever allowed to embrace being any kind of villain. Instead, this book attempts to absolve her of any guilt for her actions entirely. I won’t spoil exactly how in my review, but I think the change that bothered me the most was with one of the first major things Medea is known for - with the “truth” being almost entirely the opposite of the myth. This, I felt, almost completely defanged her as a character and set the precedent that anything ‘evil’ she does from any point forward will be explained away, rather than being the truth. This, in turn, has the negative consequence that any time Medea does do something that matches the ruthlessness of the myth it feels like a different character entirely. And so, we are left with a character who doesn’t feel natural when she does those violent actions that the Medea in the myth is known for doing.
However, I do think my issues with this book stem more from wanting a retelling of Medea that allows her to embrace being the villain she is known for while telling her side - but that also doesn’t completely remove those actions from her story. As such, I would highly encourage anyone who is a fan of Greek myth retellings, as well as the story of Medea, to check out this book for themselves to see if you get something out of this book that I did not. Overall, this book is written very lyrically and I did enjoy the story told within it, I just felt it was - at times - not a story of Medea.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Atria Books for providing this e-ARC.
The Witch of Colchis by Rosie Hewlett
3.5
I am only briefly acquainted with the myth of Medea, so there are a bunch of places I am not fully able to consider whether they stick true to the myth or whether they are the author’s changes in liberties.I did, however, know enough of the myth to want to read this book to see how exactly our central character decides to enacting her revenge on Jason for betraying her, and I’ll be completely honest, I was a bit disappointed.
Medea in this novel does not have much agency in the actions she takes - I believe the only thing she’s ever done on her own was when she, as a child, turned her brother into a pig. Otherwise, practically every other decision she makes is due to the manipulation of Jason, and she has no agency in these actions. Her father is a terrible man, as is her brother, and yet it is only when Jason backs her into a wall that she decides to kill him to save herself, and she feels guilt for such actions. In the same way, every murder Medea does to help Jason with his goals is a task given to her by Jason - but the instant she faces any backlash for such actions, he gaslights her into thinking it was her own decision and that he is innocent. I have no issues painting Jason as a less-than ideal suitor - but it’s a little disconcerting that practically every decision Medea makes that sends her along her darker path isn’t one she makes on her own. Up until the very end, she practically has no agency and is only a vessel to follow Jason around as he uses her as he wants.
I thought it was interesting that during a conversation with Atalanta, who states that women in stories can only be villains or love-struck damsels, that this book does the exact same thing to Medea. Everyone around Medea sees her as an evil witch - while this book attempts to paint these very same actions as something that she only does out of love for Jason, and not by her own merits. Even her very last actions done to hurt Jason (I won’t say what in case you’re unaware of them) I found to be very lackluster and boring. I was expecting her revenge to not only attack the woman he’s leaving her for, but for the only people Jason cares about - and, yet, in what is probably the most memorable thing Medea does - she’s barely considering Jason’s feelings, and is doing it out of naive love - and not revenge. I also found the ending to be a bit odd, with Medea suddenly doing a full 180 to her previous actions - and yet, she is taking care of her ailing father.
This book felt like it couldn’t decide whether to make Medea a villain or misunderstood damsel, and so instead attempted to do both. She is evil and embraces her darker side when it benefits her, but immediately after she feels guilt for these actions and tries to remedy them. I think I would have enjoyed this book much more if Medea was allowed to embrace her more villainous side, instead of Jason almost forcing her into that role until she has no other choice left.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing this e-ARC.
Vault of Souls by Josephine Angelini
Did not finish book. Stopped at 42%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 42%.
I think I may have to DNF this book at about the 42% mark. There were a few things that didn’t work for me, but notably the first thing that caught me off guard is that the race of slaves described in this book are all lighter-skinned than those who own them - and this is mentioned quite a few times. I only found one other review mentioning the possible racism in this book, and really tried to continue reading to give the book a fair chance since this isn’t a large author or publisher(*this statement isn't true, but I found out later), but I do want to include this in my review so no other readers are caught off guard. I really think this book should have at least one, or a few, sensitivity readers added to it before the final product, as I think the concept of this book could be good if we removed the uncomfortable undercurrent of racism running throughout it.
I tried to continue reading past this initial point without too much judgment, hoping that it was just shaky worldbuilding, but this specific trait kept coming up. It also feels a bit odd that so many named characters are intentionally described as being “mixed” and this being obvious by their lighter skin, and that so many of the antagonists in this book are not. I’m not saying this was intentional, but it just didn’t sit right with me that an entire race of people - quite literally called “The Peaceful People” - live in forests, have no words for war, and are regularly enslaved by those with darker skin than them because they’re too peace-loving to fight back. It just feels like a really weird combination of the “noble savage” trope, as well as the idea that light-skin is somehow related to morality.
After the first part that specifically mentioned a character’s darker skin forcibly relating him to the literal race of slave-owners - the first mention of skin color in this book - it caught me so off guard that I started highlighting every mention of skin color after this point.
–
I’m reading this book as an advanced copy, so any quotes I’m including are subject to change or not be included in the final product. However, they were in my copy so I’m relating them here.
“Rif-Atten was <i>nearly as dark as a Ninelander </i>[group of people keeping the U-ru-ku as slaves], but he was U-ru-ku through and through, and eager to prove that fact <i>because of his coloring.</i>” - 3%
"'Are you part U-ru-ku or Chean?' Morrigan asked, noting his slightly <i>light-toned skin</i>. He was certainly <i>dark enough, </i>but surely there was more in his blood than upper-kingdom stock." - 9%
“All the slaves are fetched, that’s why they’re <i>so pale and fair. Bleached,</i> they are. <i>Without color or substance. </i>You can practically <i>see through them.”</i>
"Loren noticed the large man had just had a haircut. A thin strip of <i>pale skin </i>ringed his neck on an otherwise <i>deeply and carefully darkened complexion."</i>
The king (described with <i>”dark skin and hair -”</i>) who the enslaved woman at the beginning of this book was over twice her age when he bought her at 15. I’m mostly including this due to the fact that this isn’t the first time one of the people in this slave-owning society (remember, they all have dark skin) is attracted to or enters a sexual relationship with someone younger than them. It never says with the second person if the age is as concerning as a 15 year old, but it’s implied this second relationship is consensual despite the power imbalance. (There’s also a prince who marries and then assaults a girl of 16 (who is described as being as light as the race of slaves, even!) later in the book. This is seen as bad within the narrative of the book, but the visual of a violent darker skinned man assaulting a white woman didn’t help my initial feelings of unchecked racism within this book).
Mentioning the other man having an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of those of the enslaved race:
“You see, Senalin? He may have lived among the most egregious of slavers, but he doesn’t judge you for <i>your light skin. Rather, he judges me for robbing the cradle.”</i> -10%
–
Now, the undercurrent of racism throughout wasn’t the only thing that put me off from this book, but it did sour the rest of my reading experience and make me less willing to forgive other slights and mistakes. I got the entirety through part one, and I felt not only were there too many POV characters, but that their chapters were mixed and included in a strange way. Timelines are all over the place, with one chapter happening and then another chapter either occurring before or after this chapter, but with no way to tell one way or the other. And then these two competing timelines would fight with each other, and so in the end I simply had no idea what was going on. This is not the final draft of this book, so it’s possible that the final product will add a timeline to each chapter heading, but since mine did not have one I was never certain who was doing what at any given time.
I also felt like there was almost no explanation within this book to tell you what was going on. Brand new words and concepts would just appear and be spoken about, with not even an internal definition or any way for the reader to figure out what these characters were talking about. There is a page that gives character names, and while I believe a glossary would have not been amiss, practically every fantasy book I’ve read (even those with a glossary) usually give a brief in-world definition of new terms to allow the reader to easily follow along. I’m not asking to be info-dumped at every given moment, but I feel like this book went too far in the opposite direction to the point that I was reading entire chapters without understanding what was going on, what these worlds meant, or how it was even relevant.
I think this, combined with how clunky the writing and dialogue itself was at times, that finally made my decision to stop reading entirely. Much of the writing itself felt awkwardly phrased, and concepts were written about in a very awkward fashion, that at many times it took me out of the story itself.
For instance, this was one of the first times that made me quite literally pause and reread what I just read, as it was so awkwardly written.
<i>“Sky’s face was passive. It’s not that she didn’t feel compassion, only that she had been trained in the Queensguard to cycle through such emotions quickly and without conscience. Sometimes Morrign felt a twinge of guilt about that.
‘The threat of war has done what nothing else ever has, then?’ Morrigan said and her guilty thoughts quickly turned to worry. She, too, had served a term in the Queensguard before her mother died and she had been forced to rise to the throne. And as such, Morrigan had been trained to cycle through emotions as rapidly as Sky had.”</i>
There are quite a few sections with information this awkwardly included, but this was the first and most noticeable that I had to make a note of. As I continued to read, I just tried to focus on reading/finishing the book rather than continuing to make notes as it wound up not being conducive to attempting to finish reading.
Finally, the characterization of a few of the women in this book kind of felt sexist-adjacent “not like other girls” to me - which isn’t the biggest issue, but since I’m including my other reasons for not finishing this book I’m including it here.
The Queen is described as only being in her 30s, and yet, somehow, this makes her “old enough” to not be “jealous” of Sky’s beauty. (Because all women are in competition with each other for looks, and for some reason being over 30 means you must be too old to care). The chapters that included both the Queen and/or Sky were very awkward at points, and at times it felt like the author was speaking to me, directly, about how women are just as capable as men. It felt less like worldbuilding and more like “inserting strong female characters into this sexist world to be better than the men, haha!”
The last instance of this before I quit reading, was when Sky seemingly took over an outpost and “figured all that out in less time than it takes most men here to find the shitter.” Not that competence isn’t realistic, but it is unrealistic for her to be seemingly great at everything she does without effort. Her entire character just felt very “the way Marvel writes strong women,” as opposed to anything else.
I’ll end my writing women rant with two quotes I highlighted when we met the Queen, here.
<i>“A fetching knitting needle, as if those who wished her dead felt they needed to mock her for being a woman. It still irked Morrigan to think about. Especially since she had no idea how to knit in the first place.” </i> Ah, yes. Only weak women knit.
<i>”The misogynists and slavers were aligning, and it wouldn’t be long before they collapsed upon her.”</i> - I’m mostly including this one, because it is insane to me to equate being sexist with owning literal human beings.
–
Now, I’d be willing to continue this book and give it more of a chance - especially if some sensitivity readers are added to hopefully curb some of the (hopefully) unintentional racism throughout. I don’t think I’ll have time to come back to this book, to see how it ends or how I feel about it, however, since it was only available through the Netgalley app and not on my Kindle, so I may have to simply end my reading where I did. Despite my harsh review, I do think this book has a lot of potential, and that it could have come together in a very coherent and beautiful way that I just simply haven’t gotten to yet since I DNF’d it. There were quite a few parts I did enjoy reading, but unfortunately the rest of it was soured by my issues I wrote about above. I feel a bit bad about how harsh my review currently is, but like I stated before I didn’t want anyone else being caught off guard by the potential racism present from the first few pages, like it did to me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Victory Editing for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
* I'd like to add that I was under the impression that this was an indie/small author, based on how I received this from Netgalley, the writing itself, as well as the author and book descriptions. I have since learned that this isn't true, but this belief did severely lighten my criticism within this book, as I was under the impression it was simply one person who may not have realized how harmful the ideas she had written were, and wanted to leave space open for it being addressed and corrected properly.
Also, when I had written my review, not a single other review mentioned the racism present in this book, and myself being white, I was worried that I was somehow imagining the harmful messages in this book or being overly sensitive, and was wary about overstepping in some way. Knowing what I know now, however, I absolutely would have been harsher in my criticism of the racist worldbuilding and would have not let multiple positive reviews to have me gaslight myself into not believing what I was reading in front of me.
I'm leaving my review as I originally wrote it, but I did want to include some context for how softly I tried to critique this book, as well as addressing that I had not done my proper research on this author before (incorrectly) assuming it was an indie/small/debut author.
I tried to continue reading past this initial point without too much judgment, hoping that it was just shaky worldbuilding, but this specific trait kept coming up. It also feels a bit odd that so many named characters are intentionally described as being “mixed” and this being obvious by their lighter skin, and that so many of the antagonists in this book are not. I’m not saying this was intentional, but it just didn’t sit right with me that an entire race of people - quite literally called “The Peaceful People” - live in forests, have no words for war, and are regularly enslaved by those with darker skin than them because they’re too peace-loving to fight back. It just feels like a really weird combination of the “noble savage” trope, as well as the idea that light-skin is somehow related to morality.
After the first part that specifically mentioned a character’s darker skin forcibly relating him to the literal race of slave-owners - the first mention of skin color in this book - it caught me so off guard that I started highlighting every mention of skin color after this point.
–
I’m reading this book as an advanced copy, so any quotes I’m including are subject to change or not be included in the final product. However, they were in my copy so I’m relating them here.
“Rif-Atten was <i>nearly as dark as a Ninelander </i>[group of people keeping the U-ru-ku as slaves], but he was U-ru-ku through and through, and eager to prove that fact <i>because of his coloring.</i>” - 3%
"'Are you part U-ru-ku or Chean?' Morrigan asked, noting his slightly <i>light-toned skin</i>. He was certainly <i>dark enough, </i>but surely there was more in his blood than upper-kingdom stock." - 9%
“All the slaves are fetched, that’s why they’re <i>so pale and fair. Bleached,</i> they are. <i>Without color or substance. </i>You can practically <i>see through them.”</i>
"Loren noticed the large man had just had a haircut. A thin strip of <i>pale skin </i>ringed his neck on an otherwise <i>deeply and carefully darkened complexion."</i>
The king (described with <i>”dark skin and hair -”</i>) who the enslaved woman at the beginning of this book was over twice her age when he bought her at 15. I’m mostly including this due to the fact that this isn’t the first time one of the people in this slave-owning society (remember, they all have dark skin) is attracted to or enters a sexual relationship with someone younger than them. It never says with the second person if the age is as concerning as a 15 year old, but it’s implied this second relationship is consensual despite the power imbalance. (There’s also a prince who marries and then assaults a girl of 16 (who is described as being as light as the race of slaves, even!) later in the book. This is seen as bad within the narrative of the book, but the visual of a violent darker skinned man assaulting a white woman didn’t help my initial feelings of unchecked racism within this book).
Mentioning the other man having an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of those of the enslaved race:
“You see, Senalin? He may have lived among the most egregious of slavers, but he doesn’t judge you for <i>your light skin. Rather, he judges me for robbing the cradle.”</i> -10%
–
Now, the undercurrent of racism throughout wasn’t the only thing that put me off from this book, but it did sour the rest of my reading experience and make me less willing to forgive other slights and mistakes. I got the entirety through part one, and I felt not only were there too many POV characters, but that their chapters were mixed and included in a strange way. Timelines are all over the place, with one chapter happening and then another chapter either occurring before or after this chapter, but with no way to tell one way or the other. And then these two competing timelines would fight with each other, and so in the end I simply had no idea what was going on. This is not the final draft of this book, so it’s possible that the final product will add a timeline to each chapter heading, but since mine did not have one I was never certain who was doing what at any given time.
I also felt like there was almost no explanation within this book to tell you what was going on. Brand new words and concepts would just appear and be spoken about, with not even an internal definition or any way for the reader to figure out what these characters were talking about. There is a page that gives character names, and while I believe a glossary would have not been amiss, practically every fantasy book I’ve read (even those with a glossary) usually give a brief in-world definition of new terms to allow the reader to easily follow along. I’m not asking to be info-dumped at every given moment, but I feel like this book went too far in the opposite direction to the point that I was reading entire chapters without understanding what was going on, what these worlds meant, or how it was even relevant.
I think this, combined with how clunky the writing and dialogue itself was at times, that finally made my decision to stop reading entirely. Much of the writing itself felt awkwardly phrased, and concepts were written about in a very awkward fashion, that at many times it took me out of the story itself.
For instance, this was one of the first times that made me quite literally pause and reread what I just read, as it was so awkwardly written.
<i>“Sky’s face was passive. It’s not that she didn’t feel compassion, only that she had been trained in the Queensguard to cycle through such emotions quickly and without conscience. Sometimes Morrign felt a twinge of guilt about that.
‘The threat of war has done what nothing else ever has, then?’ Morrigan said and her guilty thoughts quickly turned to worry. She, too, had served a term in the Queensguard before her mother died and she had been forced to rise to the throne. And as such, Morrigan had been trained to cycle through emotions as rapidly as Sky had.”</i>
There are quite a few sections with information this awkwardly included, but this was the first and most noticeable that I had to make a note of. As I continued to read, I just tried to focus on reading/finishing the book rather than continuing to make notes as it wound up not being conducive to attempting to finish reading.
Finally, the characterization of a few of the women in this book kind of felt sexist-adjacent “not like other girls” to me - which isn’t the biggest issue, but since I’m including my other reasons for not finishing this book I’m including it here.
The Queen is described as only being in her 30s, and yet, somehow, this makes her “old enough” to not be “jealous” of Sky’s beauty. (Because all women are in competition with each other for looks, and for some reason being over 30 means you must be too old to care). The chapters that included both the Queen and/or Sky were very awkward at points, and at times it felt like the author was speaking to me, directly, about how women are just as capable as men. It felt less like worldbuilding and more like “inserting strong female characters into this sexist world to be better than the men, haha!”
The last instance of this before I quit reading, was when Sky seemingly took over an outpost and “figured all that out in less time than it takes most men here to find the shitter.” Not that competence isn’t realistic, but it is unrealistic for her to be seemingly great at everything she does without effort. Her entire character just felt very “the way Marvel writes strong women,” as opposed to anything else.
I’ll end my writing women rant with two quotes I highlighted when we met the Queen, here.
<i>“A fetching knitting needle, as if those who wished her dead felt they needed to mock her for being a woman. It still irked Morrigan to think about. Especially since she had no idea how to knit in the first place.” </i> Ah, yes. Only weak women knit.
<i>”The misogynists and slavers were aligning, and it wouldn’t be long before they collapsed upon her.”</i> - I’m mostly including this one, because it is insane to me to equate being sexist with owning literal human beings.
–
Now, I’d be willing to continue this book and give it more of a chance - especially if some sensitivity readers are added to hopefully curb some of the (hopefully) unintentional racism throughout. I don’t think I’ll have time to come back to this book, to see how it ends or how I feel about it, however, since it was only available through the Netgalley app and not on my Kindle, so I may have to simply end my reading where I did. Despite my harsh review, I do think this book has a lot of potential, and that it could have come together in a very coherent and beautiful way that I just simply haven’t gotten to yet since I DNF’d it. There were quite a few parts I did enjoy reading, but unfortunately the rest of it was soured by my issues I wrote about above. I feel a bit bad about how harsh my review currently is, but like I stated before I didn’t want anyone else being caught off guard by the potential racism present from the first few pages, like it did to me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Victory Editing for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
* I'd like to add that I was under the impression that this was an indie/small author, based on how I received this from Netgalley, the writing itself, as well as the author and book descriptions. I have since learned that this isn't true, but this belief did severely lighten my criticism within this book, as I was under the impression it was simply one person who may not have realized how harmful the ideas she had written were, and wanted to leave space open for it being addressed and corrected properly.
Also, when I had written my review, not a single other review mentioned the racism present in this book, and myself being white, I was worried that I was somehow imagining the harmful messages in this book or being overly sensitive, and was wary about overstepping in some way. Knowing what I know now, however, I absolutely would have been harsher in my criticism of the racist worldbuilding and would have not let multiple positive reviews to have me gaslight myself into not believing what I was reading in front of me.
I'm leaving my review as I originally wrote it, but I did want to include some context for how softly I tried to critique this book, as well as addressing that I had not done my proper research on this author before (incorrectly) assuming it was an indie/small/debut author.
A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson
4.0
I’d like to begin with the warning that I would not classify this book to be under dark academia, nor slow-burn enemies to lovers. Yes, our main character spends a great deal of time within a school-like setting, but it is not dark academia - in fact, a good portion of this book is barely focused on the academia portion at all. Instead, we spend a great deal of time with our main character trying to decide between her morals and her family, with the work she is doing taking a much-more backseat to the story. As well, her romantic lead and her fairly quickly move to involving themselves with one another, and the closest we get to ‘enemies’ is them having different backgrounds and occasionally disagreeing with them. They are never actually enemies, and the only way I could see this as being “slow-burn” is if you include the fact that they don’t have sex and barely kiss within this novel, which is not what that word means. I feel like this description might have been written by someone who has not read this book, so I would recommend looking elsewhere if that is the only thing about this book that caught your interest as you will be sorely disappointed.
I have not read Fourth Wing, so I can’t speak on any comparisons people have made with that book and this one. I have, however, read Babel and can say I can see where the comparisons come from, but I would say that Babel focuses much more on the actual language/magic learning in the academic setting, while this one has it much more as a background activity to the rest of the novel. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I found some of the focus on the language in Babel to bog me down a bit, but I do think this book would have benefited from focusing more on the main character being a polyglot - in both human and dragon languages. We are only given a few words in this book that aren’t in English, even during sections where she is not speaking in English, and at times I found it difficult to pick up what language she was speaking until the text explicitly states it. Considering she only speaks to her mother in Bulgarian, and typically switches languages in the middle when speaking with dragons, I think having a bit more focus - and possibly a few words/language learned - would have benefited this story. As it is, there is no difference between this main character being a polyglot and someone who only speaks one language. The closest we get to Robin Swift’s dilemma in Babel about what language he thinks/breathes in, which one is his “first” and “second” language - is at the very beginning where she wakes up thinking of a word in a dragon language that she can’t immediately translate. Otherwise she seems to have no issues speaking over 6 languages and never flubs her words, or mixes up words from the wrong language, which I found to be a bit unrealistic.
It also takes Vivian significantly longer than Robin Swift in Babel to actually choose her morals (about 70% into the book), and yet somehow she was able to make friends and acquaintances have faith in her and trust her with secrets that could get them executed. Her main romantic lead even states that he had faith in her the entire time, despite her telling him over and over again that she would choose her family over the rest of the country. Every single time you thought Vivian was going to (finally) make a decision on who to choose, she’d waffle about it and then choose both and neither at the same time. It got tedious after a while, and I’ll be honest I was almost hoping she’d decide to betray everyone around her to get what she wanted as it would have at least made her character more interesting. Instead, she is allowed to constantly make bad decisions that hurt those around her, but is then forgiven for them anyway.
For instance, in the past Vivian had done something that had ruined her former friends life - but when it comes out, it doesn’t take that friend too long to forgive her actions. It also annoyed me that Vivian’s apology kind of felt like she tried to guilt Sophie into forgiving her, by constantly going, “It’s okay if you don’t forgive me, I wouldn't either.” But then she ruins it by finishing with saying that she’d find a way to forgive herself for those actions - apologizing but then telling that person that you’d forgive yourself for hurting them? Surprised Sophie didn't deck you for that one, girl.
Finally, I felt like this book went a bit too far with the implication that every dragon from Bulgaria was a human-hunting evil monster, despite the fact that the main dragon character was Bulgarian and had severe guilt over her actions in the past. Not to mention that we find out that a lot of those previous evil actions were actually orchestrated by a human government who used the feelings of betrayal of those dragons to manipulate them into doing such violence. It doesn’t absolve it, but it does make it seem a bit suspicious that even after finding this out, our main character still sees Bulgarian dragons as untrustworthy. Vivian even explicitly states that, “Bulgarian dragons don’t ally with humans,” despite working with one this entire time.
Overall, I did feel like this book was a strong debut and did fairly well with the issues brought up in this novel, and I am interested in seeing what comes next. If you like political intrigue, betrayals and secret identities, and dragons (although, much less involved than you’d expect given the title), I would recommend picking up this book and seeing for yourself.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Harper Collins for providing this e-ARC.
Symbiote by Michael Nayak
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Combining the isolation from any outside help with a deadly biological threat that infiltrates an Antarctic research base - Symbiote remains grounded in reality as chaos threatens to take over. This book felt like a fantastic combination of a zombie and survival thriller, where every step the main characters take to learn more about the microbe - it is also learning about them, as well.
One thing I really loved about this book was how realistic the biological threat present in this book felt. Even as the body count began to stack up and the chaos was building - everything felt like it could be happening right now, and no one not at the bottom of the world would even know about it. I also loved the surprise with how the politics of the world, and the war currently going on, was incorporated into this story, as up until a certain point I wasn’t certain the relevance of the specific timeline. However, with the current political climate this book felt almost too realistic, at times.
I also really liked how this book took the typical bones of the typical zombie virus and developed it into its own story as the novel progressed. The microbe present in this book evolved and developed in ways I never anticipated, and I really loved the changes that occurred from the start to the ending of this book. It seemed that once the main characters got a handle on how to survive and eliminate the threat, it would change in a new way to still outmaneuver them. I really liked how at no point was I certain who, or how, anyone would survive to the end of this novel.
Also, this book ends with such a bang! This ending could be perfect just on its own to read this book as a standalone - but it also lends itself for a sequel to continue the story. And I was so excited that the author’s note promised more to see how everything develops after the chaos of this book. I’ll absolutely be wanting to read the next installment to see what happens next.
The only thing I struggled with during this book was some of the technical names, naming conventions, and buildings and their locations. While my copy did include a brief glossary of characters and their titles, as well as the abbreviations that were used throughout this book, I do think it would benefit with a small map (nothing fancy) of the buildings and their locations to allow the reader to more easily picture and track the movements of the characters throughout the novel.
If you like zombie thrillers, Antarctic/Arctic horror, and authors like Darcy Coates and SA Barnes, I would highly recommend picking up this novel to read for yourself With no true heroes or villains, only people desperate to survive a chaos they never expected when they signed up to work at the bottom of the world - Symbiote is a strangely realistic tale of survival against all costs, even when the odds are stacked against you.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Angry Robot for providing both an e-ARC as well as a physical copy for review.
Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London
3.0
I really wish I liked this book more than I did, and to be fair - the parts I did enjoy I had fun with! - but the other issues just took me so far out of the book that overall the enjoyment was tainted.
Now, I want to be clear. I in no way believe or want to imply that victims of assault cannot see themselves in romance novels, or that they don’t deserve to see themselves finding love and happiness in them. I’ve read romance books where the main character had been assaulted and didn’t end the book feeling as off about it as I did in this one. (The Ice Planet Barbarians book focusing on Tiffany I think does this fairly well in both addressing her trauma and having the physical relationship move in a realistic - and sexy - way.) So, believe me when I say my issues don’t stem from a main character having a specific trauma.
I think the biggest issue with this book is the dramatic tone shifting between Tess’ trauma after her assault - and the schloppy romance “spending days in bed having sex” plots. Having both be directly next to one another feels wrong, and there is a specific scene where Tess relates - in explicit detail - her trauma, and then immediately after her and the guy she’s with have marathon sex where, it’s explicitly stated, she doesn’t have any issues or triggers to avoid. And this book is filled with these wild tone shifts, where it can’t figure out a happy-medium between fun romcom lightheadedness and the seriousness of the assault, and the end result leaves the reader feeling overall uncomfortable even in lighthearted scenes.
Also, I think the scenes where Tess is dealing with her trauma kind of verge from storytelling and flowing in a plot, to “character says the best and most correct thing” here, and in many ways it felt less like a conversation happening and more like “this is a good character because they are saying the correct thing, regardless if this is how a conversation between people works,” type of deal. It wasn’t the biggest issue I had, but it was very noticeable during the conversation where Tess gets with her love interest. He says something to make her think she can’t trust him, and then he barely says anything to get her to trust him, and suddenly she does? And then they’re having marathon sex with no issues? (Also, the sex scene itself was underwhelming, which is fine but I did find it odd that the male love interest has a whole internal monologue about not wanting Tess to think she has to force herself to come, but when she does being like “I’m so happy she trusts me like this.” I will admit to being like, “Huh?” during this part.)
I also felt some of the descriptions to be odd, with similar ones being used for loved interests as well as men who we think may attempt to assault Tess.
These quotes are taken from a digital ARC copy, and may not be in the final product. I had only highlighted them in my copy because the first description made me a bit uncomfortable, which was only confirmed when the second description happened and I was like “Wait, wasn’t this almost exact thing said about a love interest?”
“...with every aspect of this hulking brute of a man. He was easily a foot taller than she was, thick with muscle…” - a scene describing a sexy romp within the world of the books this novel is about.
“He was big - like, linebacker big…” - a scene of a man trapping Tess in a hallway and potentially wanting to force himself on her.
Finally, this doesn’t really mean anything, but the brief interludes of the characters and scenes within the books this novel is about really took me out of the story. The writing style in these books was very Harlequin-style, trashy romance and every scene we were forced to read of this world just made me wonder why on earth these books would be popular. The plots and storylines shown, as well as the writing, in these “books” made the popularity of these books make no sense to me, and I could not understand how the main character not only read all 3 books but regularly re-read them for enjoyment.
Overall, I did enjoy this book and found the plot and romances to be fun and typical within a romance novel - nothing too surprising in one way or the other - and didn’t have an issue with any of it. However, the constant tonal shifts between Tess falling into bed with her love interest for days on end, and then having a complete 180 while she deals with her trauma and it becomes very serious, severely limited the enjoyment I felt while reading. The overall feeling was a kind of lukewarm, mildly uncomfortable mix that made the romance feel weak, and also made it hard to simply accept some of the sillier plot going on in the background. It’s not that this author didn’t handle the assault and trauma with care, but that it felt like an entirely separate book that was simply mashed together, rather than a cohesive story. Also, this is entirely just me, but if I wasn’t already going to give this 3 stars because of the overall mess of the book, I would have had to seriously consider knocking off a star <i>anyway</i> because apparently one character is named for a stupid Taylor Swift reference, and I’d like to go one single time reading an urban fantasy romance without having to deal with a stupid and unnecessary Swift reference. For once.
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Random House for providing this e-ARC.