hisopa's reviews
77 reviews

Inferno's Heir by Tiffany Wang

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.5

This debut book was incredibly awesome. It's been a while since I read a true fantasy book and I was enraptured by the world of magic and political schemes I found. In addition to this, the characters were so interesting - everyone had something going for them even if it just was being plain awful (

I'm looking at you, Jura

). My only problem was that I got kinda lost when they talked about the different countries but I don't think I missed something important.
Thanks to Violetear Books and NetGalley for giving me this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

I think this book perfectly illustrates the many facettes of reading as a hobby - the downside of being all-encompassing, but also the discovery of new worlds and the feelibg of connection between people who've read the same books.
I loved the cozy feel of the bookshop and am intrigued in some of the books that were mentiones, however some characters seemed weird to me.

Murder by Numbers by Megan Mayfair

lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.5

This book was a very relaxing read about a small town by the beach in which a murder happened. The characters were cute and the story was good as well. I wouldn't say that it was extraordinary but sometimes I just need a cleansing book that doesn't take a lot of effort to read and this one was perfect for that. The twist was pretty predictable though :/

A Very Irish Christmas by Debbie Johnson

funny lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

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

3.75

My thoughts on this book can be easily summed up by calling it a feel-good cozy romance that is best enjoyed on a snowy day with hot cocoa and cookies. For a more in depth review I have structured my thoughts into three parts:
The style of writing:
This is the first book of Debbie Johnson's books that I've read so far, but I am pretty sure it won't be the last. I loved her cozy and witty style of writing and the usage of Irish slang to draw us into her world. 
The story:
The basic premise of this book was good (being heartbroken and recovering by becoming an active part of your life again) and I did like how she slowly became part of the town. However I just do not care much for slow burn love triangles. At some points it felt very stretched and I just wanted her to choose someone. So sadly, the main parts of this romance book that I liked were the ones without any romance.
The characters:
I. Loved. Everyone. The characters felt so welcoming and warm it made me so happy to read about them. The one I liked the least was the main character and that was only because she was very dumb and took forever to accept that someone might be interested in her

(how does someone convince themself that two confessions of love - one with the offering of a house - must be lies???)

. The others were great though <3
So in summary: I absolutely recommend this book if you want a slow burn smalltown romance with a love triangle and some witty Irish humour. However if you can't stand a MC who doesn't make their mind up and is very oblivious - stay away!
A big thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for giving me this book as a free arc in exchange for an honest review :)

Crystal Dark by Julie L. Kramer

adventurous challenging relaxing fast-paced

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

2.0

WAY TOO MANY SPIDERS!!!

I didn't really care about the characters or what was happening to them, so this book was very meh for me.

How the Pill Changes Everything: Your Brain on Birth Control by Sarah E. Hill

challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

I think this book was very interesting and am happy to have learned so much. The parts that are harder to understand are explained in easier terms so that I think I got everything. I am pretty sure that I need to reread it to comprehend even more because there was a big amount of new information.

Virtuality: The Sailor Comes Home From the Sea by Ragnar Kroll

challenging informative slow-paced

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

2.5

I want to preface this by saying, that I usually do not read science fiction novels and therefore I am a bit out of my comfort zone.

The author had a lot of interesting ideas for the world he built in this book and I am intrigued how it is going to expand in the next books that are going to come into this series. I also found the plot evolvement at the end to be quite creative.

However, this book just was not for me. There were way too many characters with sometimes similar names (it took me way too long to realize that Sam & Simon and Justin & Jackson) were all different people -.- Furthermore, Simon's Pov (which is used a lot in the beginning) utilized a great number of unnecessarily complicated words - this does fit his character, so I get why the author chose to do this - while a great number of terms which were invented for the (admittedly creative) world of this book were used. I think most of them, like DNT, Fav and Lectrom, are not or at least only pretty late explained in the book. It was very frustrating for me to constantly look up words just to realize that they were inventions for this book. 
After an embarrassingly long time I realized that this book has a glossary with a character index and an explanation for all the terms that drove me crazy. Of course I read through everything, thinking it would prepare me for the rest of the book.... I forgot a lot of the terms and had to check the glossary regularly. This also led to me spoiling myself in regard to some of the plottwists at the end of the book.

Considering all this, I do want to remind you that I am not used to reading sci-fi, so maybe this is common in this genre. For me it was not a pleasant reading experience, which explains my low rating :(

The Teacher by Freida McFadden

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I found this book to be extremely predictable. While reading the first 3 chapters, I predicted the major twists and therefore did not get a sense of urgency to finish the story.

However, two things still managed to surprise me and I loved the captivating style of writing.

A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova

lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

3.5

I liked the world Kova built in this book and the interesting dynamics between the characters.
However, I felt indifferent towards their fates and therefore was a bit bored while reading it.
Nonetheless, it was relaxing.

Lore by Alexandra Bracken

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I love pretty much every retelling of Greek myths so I ate this up. I really loved the creative worldbuilding and was very intrigued about what was going to happen next.
However, there were too many characters for me which made it kind of hard to follow at times.