REVIEW: Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff My rating: 3 of 5 stars Pre-read Reaction I ignore blurbs because 1) most of the times I don't know anything about the endorser, 2) it's always a couple of vague adjectives pieced together saying how great the book is, 3) sometime they're taken out of context and mean the opposite, 4) sometime they're by people back-scratching each other and may not have even read...

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REVIEW: Freakling by Lana Krumwiede

Freakling by Lana Krumwiede My rating: 2 of 5 stars This dystopian Middle Grade book would have been an easy 3-stars were it not for a few big things. + the weak hero I did not like Taemon. I could tolerate his lack of self-confidence, but his refusal to listen to his common sense pushed my limit. When you live in a society where psychic power is everything and you lose your own, common sense...

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REVIEW: Carniepunk: Parlor Tricks by Jennifer Estep

Carniepunk: Parlor Tricks by Jennifer Estep My rating: 3 of 5 stars This short story was a delightful interlude in the Elemental Assassin series, one of my favorite-adjacent urban fantasy series. Unlike the many other short stories in the series that are flashbacks and, to be honest, rather dull backstory building, this one took place in the present and had a fair amount of action. It was more than...

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REVIEW: The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond

The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond My rating: 2 of 5 stars Ancient gods, a secret society, and the end of the world; I expected to be wowed. I was not wowed. The book described how bad things were (really bad) and how high the stakes were (really high) but I scarcely felt it. Despite all the danger and how any moment they could die, or at least get maimed, if they did not tread carefully, I was never...

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REVIEW: The Exodus Towers by Jason M. Hough

The Exodus Towers by Jason M. Hough My rating: 2 of 5 stars + the plot The first half of the book wore me out. Too many bad things were happening to our heroes for me to deal. The book depended too much on external conflicts to drive the plot much to its detriment. It left little room for me to connect with the characters, i.e. to give a damn for their continual breathing. My weariness would have...

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REVIEW: The Bone Triangle by B.V. Larson

The Bone Triangle by B.V. Larson My rating: 3 of 5 stars Despite the attention-grabbing fight scene, the beginning was awful because the explanation of what had happened during book 1 made me vastly irritated with the hero. I struggled to remember why I ever liked Quentin. + the characters Deep in debts, Quentin took little effort to find a job. It never occurred to him that if there was no paranormal...

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REVIEW: Knightley Academy by Violet Haberdasher

Knightley Academy by Violet Haberdasher My rating: 2 of 5 stars Characters were complete cliché. You had your Cinderella character in Henry, your new money character in Adam, your token person of color character in Rohan, and your tomboy girl in Frankie. If you were rich, aristocratic, white, and male, you were a bad guy and hated Henry and his friends because they dared to be different and strayed...

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REVIEW: The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 3 of 5 stars Great fantasy. It was one of the best Young Adult fantasies I have read this year. Unfortunately, a couple of things kept me from rating the book as high as I would have liked. My Dislikes + the world building First, the world building could have been conveyed more clearly. At first I thought it was complete fantasy, but once I realized...

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