nicoleterego's reviews
146 reviews

Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Good balance of mystery, adventure, and fun. Loveable characters, engaging plot, unpredictable plot twists, and compelling backstories for each one of them. This is my introduction to Holly Jackson's writing and I'm instantly inlove.

It has some minor flaws like how Pip is too naive at times and when some of the things she does are too unrealistic BUT i'm ready to suspend belief and just enjoy good fiction when the writing is this good.

Immediately diving into the next book cause I can't wait for more Pipravi.

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

Worldbuilding kinda wonky at first, I had to read some passages a couple more times to actually understand what's happening. I wish there was more immersion into the city itself. The magic system still doesn't make sense to me and some things were just not explained at all. The lore is rich and has so many potentials but I hope it can get explained better in future books. So many things going on specially on the last few chapters, you'd think it's the last book of a trilogy.

What I like though is the way each characters are complex. None of them are one-dimensional. Each one has their own set of beliefs and motivations I can emphatize but at the same time it lets me question their morals. Even after finishing the book, I still don't know who to root for. I love that even side characters like Kaveh has peaked my interest.

Overall the book is kind of messy at times but it's a mess that I'm willing to dive in because the author made the characters compelling enough for me to continue flipping the pages. I'm hopeful for book two to be better.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

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challenging dark hopeful medium-paced

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

3.75

The Eleventh Metal by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous mysterious

4.0

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

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adventurous challenging medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

This book's hype is criminal.

Listing off rants off the top of my head:

- Lots of things not making sense
- Worldbuilding? They don't know her.
- Not so triangle love triangle (cause it's so obvious who she's going to be with duh)
- Predictable plots, like a mediocre YA mixtape. Meh.
- Supposedly smart main character, but she's just dumb all the time.
- Xaden's cringe nickname for Violet. Subtracting 0.25 to my rating for that level of corny.
- Omegaverse (???) thing going on somewhere in the middle. Questionable writing decision.
- Badly writen fight scenes.
- Plot holes everywhere, had me like "???" so many times.
- Dragging chapters should've just been replaced with actual world building, maybe idk- history? politics? I don't understand a damn thing outside the rider's quadrant. They can't make me care about the things going on outside because I do not understand it's history! Again, worldbuilding!

The only good things I like about it:

- Dragons! Specially Tairn and Andarna – oh I love them.
- There was a moment after treshing that I enjoyed genuinely but then it started going downhill again after a few chapters.
- They actually succeeded in making me care for Liam's death (which I totally foreseen coming).
- Apparently she has a chronic illness of sorts, idk though if it was a proper representation.

I honestly want to like this book because it has so much potential. It has every elements I like in a fantasy genre but the author just doesn't know how to execute that.

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