juliana_reads's reviews
363 reviews

The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

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adventurous emotional tense slow-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

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

5.0

Amazing. Somehow better than the first book. 
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The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

I loved this. It does start slow, but once Dara and Nahri were on their way I was hooked. So much fantasy is just repackaged medieval Europe, so this held my attention for nearly six hundred pages. I read it on my Kobo to look up words and also had a hard copy to easily reference the map and glossary. It was worth the effort to fully understand this world. 

My only issues:
I don’t mind a romantic subplot, but the one between Dara and Nahri seemed abrupt and just based on lust. I would have liked to see it unfurl slowly. He’s also…a millennium older than her. In addition, I felt that dropping pieces of Daeva lore through both Ali and Nahri’s perspectives made it difficult to follow or figure out what was true and what was manipulation. I needed like a blurb or a “once upon a time” at the beginning.
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Heartstopper Volume 5 by Alice Oseman

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emotional funny hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Another beautiful installment in the Heartstopper series 🥲
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Better Hate than Never by Chloe Liese

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

3.0

I’m a huge fan of Chloe Liese, but this fell flat for me. Kate’s stubbornness came off as petulant, and Christopher’s aloofness was mean. Enemies-to-lovers doesn’t work for me when the main characters are so at odds that it feels like whiplash when they get together. In general,
I think I just wasn’t a huge fan of Kate and Christopher 😬

As always, though, the intimacy was equal parts tender, hot, and respectful. That was the redeeming factor for me- not just the explicit bits, but also moments like making pasta or the bath scene. 
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Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert

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dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A damn good fantasy. Book two truly left off right where book one ended, and I was satisfied by the ending. My biggest “issue” was that the author’s prose was often repetitive (e.g. “limned in red” or relying heavily on the em dash) and I couldn’t stop noticing. One plot line was a bit predictable, but that also may have been my fault because I googled what each tree looked like so I could visualize better, and I should not have looked up
Taxus.
Once I did that I connected the dots. Oops!
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Cruel Seduction by Katee Robert

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I think this was the weakest of the series so far, because it served only to set up the next big part of the Olympus storyline and had four POVs (so not a lot of forward movement). Pandora especially felt underdeveloped to me. But I still ate it all up! I love this series.
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Give Me Butterflies by Jillian Meadows

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emotional funny lighthearted 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

5.0

I debated whether I would give this 5 stars because there were a few little things that I picked at, but honestly this was such a good book that I just let them go. I screamed with delight, I swooned, I cheered for the protagonists…and there were a bunch of museum nerds too! 
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Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe

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dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Really beautiful graphic novel, but hard to follow? Like I have basic but solid understanding of mythology but I felt dropped in the middle of a story with no context. Also did not realize there would be an on page r*pe, even with the content warnings.
The fact she was a virgin made it even worse.
I got this from the library with volume two so I am going to give it another try. 

Update 1/23/24: tried volume two, couldn’t get past the first few pages. The more I think about it the more I am disappointed by volume one, so I am dropping the rating down. 
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