whatsheread's reviews
2190 reviews

THIS CURSED LIGHT by Emily Thiede is everything you want from a sequel and series ender. For a debut novel, THIS VICIOUS GRACE was impressive. What Ms. Thiede accomplishes with the sequel is just as excellent. She grabs your attention with the first sentence, doesn't let it go until the last, and gives you a story that is as romantic, surprising, and suspenseful as you wish.

You start THIS CURSED LIGHT knowing the path to their happily ever after will not be easy for Alessa and Dante. Even with that knowledge, what Ms. Thiede puts them through is, in many ways, cruel. Because saving the world one time isn't enough, they must test the limits of their relationship, faith in each other, and humanity. 

While it sounds like a cheesy write-up, Ms. Thiede makes it much better. She manages to keep Dante's struggles relatable and Alessa's fears on point. While there are times that the story is too focused on their relationship, Ms. Thiede ensures that we can see the bigger picture - that Dante's and Alessa's relationship issues are only small waves in a much larger ocean. 

Because THIS CURSED LIGHT is about relationships but not individual ones. It's about the preconceived notions and hatred that ensue between groups. It uses the gods' feud to show how difficult it is for people to forgive or forget societal ills and that we do not expect people to do what is best for society versus what is best for themselves. Ms. Thiede shows what it means to put others before ourselves, and she does it in a way that is entertaining, sometimes comical, romantic, and hopeful.

I also want to express my relief that Ms. Thiede does not use the miscommunication trope to create tension between Alessa and Dante. Well, she doesn't use it too much. I detest that trope, but Ms. Thiede only makes us suffer through it briefly. Ultimately, both characters understand that miscommunication does not make for a strong relationship, nor does it show respect to your partner. Thank you, Ms. Thiede!

I loved every second of THIS CURSED LIGHT. I read it way past my bedtime and obsessed about it when I wasn't reading it. It was the type of story I didn't want to end. I believe the ending is just about perfect, but I didn't want my time with any characters to end. THE CURSED LIGHT was one of the best books I read all month, and I cannot wait to see what Ms. Thiede has for us next.  

THE KINGDOM OF SWEETS caught my eye for being both a reimagining of the Nutcracker story and a new novel by Erika Johansen, author of The QUEEN OF THE TEARLING series. I loved that series, and the Nutcracker story is so timeless. I wanted to see what she does with it. 

I finished the book last week, and I still don't know what I think. When I look at THE KINGDOM OF SWEETS as a sum of its parts, I enjoyed it. The pacing is quick, and the story is familiar enough to enjoy but unfamiliar enough to keep me on my toes. There's a good message about family and revenge. 

Yet, when I try to think of the individual elements of THE KINGDOM OF SWEETS, I struggle to find something I like. Neither Clara nor Natasha are great characters. Drosselmeyer could be interesting, but we only see him through Natasha's eyes. The Sugar Plum Fairy could also be interesting, but she is too one-noted.

The story, while intriguing, is a bit of a mess. Honestly, I can't even begin to put into words what happened and why. It all just sort of happens, and you go with the flow while reading. The only part I remember is the end, when we finally get a sense of the historical time period in which the novel is set. There are bargains that are essentially bargains with the devil. We have terrible parents and even worse extended family. Every character is terrible. The whole story is grim. It is all very Russian.

I'm really glad that Ms. Johansen published another novel. It's the first thing she's put out into the world since 2021. Unfortunately, I cannot say I liked THE KINGDOM OF SWEETS. The best part was seeing how Ms. Johansen incorporated the Nutcracker ballet into the actual story. Unfortunately, even that only lasts the first quarter of the book. Engaging but forgettable is how I would describe it, with not a single redeeming character in the entire book, the main character included. 

INHERITANCE is the first book in a new Nora Roberts fantasy series, and once again, Queen Nora does not disappoint. With INHERITANCE, she breaks from form to create a story that focuses on developing the characters and the backstory instead of focusing on the action. Plus, it ends with one hell of a cliffhanger. 

Ms. Roberts never fails to impress me. She is such a prolific writer, but none of her stories are stale or repetitive. In INHERITANCE, she limits the supernatural aspect of the story to a haunted house, and what a house it is. The house is a character in its own right, courtesy of its resident ghosts. If you don't finish the novel wishing you had a ghost dj and a ghost housekeeper, this isn't the novel for you. 

Ms. Roberts' novels are so compelling because she excels at creating characters that are so real. It doesn't matter that they are all beautiful or talented. They work hard, and any success they can claim is a result of their efforts so you can't hate them. They are so charismatic, and their network of friends and family is enviable. When she throws in a dog, and there is always a dog, you can't help but be willing to follow them anywhere. This holds true for INHERITANCE. Sonya and Trey are adorable. Sonya and her mom are even more so.

What surprised me most about INHERITANCE is that we are not any closer to solving the mystery at the end as we are at the beginning. In fact, the ending is so sudden that I thought I was missing pages. I was wracking my brain to think of another Roberts novel that ends with such a cliffhanger, and I could not think of one. I love that she changed her formula so much at this stage in her career. I am in awe of her abilities.

I consider any Nora Roberts novel to be a special treat, but INHERITANCE was even better than I imagined. I fell in love with Sonya and Trey. And that house! Ms. Roberts makes me reconsider living on the coast as long as it is in an old Victorian with a widow walk and wraparound porches. I can't wait to see what happens next!

TONIGHT, I BURN by Katherine J. Adams is a book I loved while reading. I tore through it, wanting to know everything there was to know about Penny, Malin, and the High Warden. The type of magic practiced in Penny's world is frightening yet fascinating. 

Except, the minute I sat down to think about TONIGHT, I BURN after finishing it, I discovered that I have issues with it. Several issues. They didn't prevent me from enjoying the reading experience, but they present concerns for the sequel. 

The biggest issue with TONIGHT, I BURN is a lack of character development and backstory. We know almost nothing about the High Warden, how he came to be, why he is the despot he is, how he came to own all magic in the country and more. We know only slightly more about the various covens, but at least we know how they ended up as slaves to the Warden. 

This lack of backstory makes it difficult to feel anything for Penny. We simply don't know enough to understand why Penny flouting the rules is dangerous or forbidden. And we have almost no understanding of the need for the Resistance outside of the fact that it is obvious the High Warden has too much power. 

My other issue with TONIGHT, I BURN is a personal one. Namely, I'm not a fan of polyamory. Plus, it is such a sudden choice. One minute, Penny worries about giving up one of the two people to whom she's attracted. The next minute, Malin says he can share, and it's a done deal. This is before Penny consumates either relationship or even before either relationship reaches that "its fate" point. It's so...bizarre. I believe Ms. Adams does a good job representing polyamory in general. Unfortunately, the old-fashioned part of me really wishes she picked one lover and became good friends with the other. 

Whenever a book makes me feel so divided, the most important question becomes whether I will continue to read the series. In the case of TONIGHT, I BURN, I think I will. TONIGHT, I BURN is not a bad debut. The images of Penny literally burning herself alive to cross over into Death are not going to leave me any time soon. The ending leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Plus, it is Ms. Adams' first novel. Her writing will continue to improve, and I hope she will include more backstories for her characters in the sequel. 

I will admit that I am not a fan of NIGHTRENDER, the first book in the Salvation Cycle duology by Jodi Meadows. Too much thinking and too little action made what I believe should have been a powerful story into an angsty teen drama. The fact that one of these angsty teens is an immortal monster hunter with centuries of experience only made it worse. 

When DAWNBREAKER became available as a review copy, I stopped to think before requesting a copy. Did I want to take the chance that the same issues I saw in the first book would remain in the second? Did I want to know how it ended? Does my curiosity outweigh the negatives? After weighing the pros and cons, I took a chance. Surprisingly, I'm glad I did. 

While the series does not rank anywhere close to my favorites, I feel DAWNBREAKER is a decent finale for what became a decent story. One of my biggest questions was how Ms. Meadows would create happy endings for the main three characters without killing off one of them. I'm impressed with her story choices. I'm even more impressed that the characters received the appropriate punishment or reward in a way that felt authentic and not convenient. 

What's more, is that DAWNBREAKER kept surprising me. While few plot twists or jaw-dropping reveals exist, there are subtler surprises. These surprises flesh out some of the characters, making them less one-noted and less totally good or totally evil. The lack of morally gray characters was one of my main critiques of NIGHTRENDER, so these changes were welcome.

I am glad I took the chance on DAWNBREAKER. Ms. Meadows did a good job tying together her subplots to create a conclusion that is satisfying. The writing is stronger; subsequently, the story is as well. There is less hand-wringing and more action, which also helps make it a better story. I don't think DAWNBREAKER will win any year-end awards, but it is an acceptable conclusion to a decent duology.

While I am relatively new to Katee Roberts and do not have many of her novels under my belt, I still expect her stories to be escapism at its finest. My expectations include fun characters, good bedroom scenes, and plots that are as entertaining as they are fast reading. Unfortunately, Hunt on Dark Waters, her latest novel and series opener, failed to meet my expectations. 

Let's start with the good. I loved the world-building. The idea of mermaids being terrible monsters was a fun take, as is Ms. Roberts' take on the Wild Hunt being a real thing consisting of magic-containing pirates and not Fae. I wanted to see more of this world and its monsters. I wanted to learn more about the politics behind the Hunt and how it got to be where it is when Evelyn arrives on the scene. 

In fact, I loved the world so much, I wanted more sea action and less bedroom action. Actually, I could have done without all of the bedroom action. I didn't find any of the scenes particularly sexy. Moreover, they did nothing to enhance the story. If anything, they were meant to show how Bowen and Evelyn are fated for each other. But, we are talking about two people who met the day before and spent most of that time fighting each other. Suddenly, after some time in the bedroom, they can't live without each other. Even I can't buy that level of insta-love when there is nothing there but sex to support the relationship.

Outside the bedroom scenes, there is little more to Hunt on Dark Waters. There is little to no character development and minimal world-building. The plot is simplistic at best. Even when Ms. Roberts introduces the added complication of Evelyn's vampire ex to the mix, the story feels flat. There is so much potential here, but it feels like Ms. Roberts intended this particular story to be nothing more than a porn movie in story form, and that is the most disappointing aspect of the entire thing. 

The Future by Naomi Alderman is not what I expected it to be. More importantly, while there are parts I like, I can't say I enjoyed it. I wanted to. I like the idea of people attempting to circumvent the power grabs and societal damage caused by the fictional versions of Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg. Somewhere along the way, however, Ms. Alderman loses the plot, and The Future morphs into something else. 

The main problem with The Future is that you don't care about the characters. And when you don't care about them and the plot is character-driven, you have problems. So much is made of Lai's feelings for Martha that you think you are reading a relationship story, not speculative fiction. But you don't care for Lai or Martha. Neither are they memorable. 

Then there are the odd points of the novel that occur on a Reddit-type site catering to end-of-the-world preppers wherein one character spends pages and pages rehashing Lot's story from the Bible. While I enjoyed the modern-day spin of it, the points the character was trying to make went over my head. Actually, I didn't care enough to take the time to reflect on what the character was saying for it to make sense. Instead, we have huge swaths of The Future devoted to the Bible and a lecture on how today's society isn't all that different from Sodom and how we can learn from Lot and Abraham. Add in some weird symbolism of rabbits versus foxes, and you have entire pages I skimmed just to get through them.

The most disappointing aspect of The Future, however, is not the poor character development or the Bible lessons. Instead, it is how Ms. Alderman handles the ending. Not only does she make a main character unreliable, someone who wasn't unreliable to that point, but she creates a situation as unbelievable as it is unsurprising. There is nothing shocking about what occurs. The plot twists are not twists because you can see them coming well in advance. When your entire novel hinges on surprising your readers and you fail to do just that, it means there is an issue with your writing. 

While it would be wonderful if Ms. Alderman created a legitimate template for how we could make the necessary changes in society that would circumvent Bezos', Musk's, and Zuckerberg's power and influence, The Future proves to be nothing more than science fiction, and bad science fiction at that. When you don't care about the characters and half of the story is preaching, it makes for a story you are happy to finish and never think about again. 

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske, the third and final book in The Last Binding series, delves into the life of the mysterious and oh-so-prickly Lord Hawthorn, and it does not disappoint. Honestly, I believe it to be Ms. Marske's best novel to date. Jack Alston is not an easy character, but Ms. Marske makes him likable, sympathetic, and just a wee bit heroic. I never thought I would use these traits to describe Lord Jack, but here we are.

Two areas Ms. Marske handles with delicacy are Jack's peerage and his sexual preferences. Alan Ross may be his form of heroin, but the dynamics between the two are fraught with political tension as well as sexual. Alan is so angry towards the titled and entitled that he practically spits fire at his new friends. To Alan, Jack is everything he hates, which makes their physical relationship tricky. 

Jack already exudes a natural dominance in everything he does and says. Because of who he is, Jack already has all the power in any relationship. Yet, Ms. Marske handles the dom/sub aspect of their mutual attraction with sensitivity. Sex scenes have come a long way over the decades, and Ms. Marske is one of the best at showing how consent and safe words are sexy. 

While I admire how well Ms. Marske builds Jack's and Alan's relationship, I did struggle with the ending of The Last Binding series. I feel it is too anticlimactic, but now that I think about it, maybe that is the point. The theme of A Power Unbound is a few select people should not hold a majority of anything. Alan constantly preaches this idea to Jack and anyone else who will listen. Given this, I probably should have expected the resolution to the magical crisis. 

In fact, I'm now beginning to think that A Power Unbound and the rest of the series are somewhat of a modern-day anti-capitalist/anti-monarchy manifesto. I don't know how I didn't see this before, but I like it. And if Ms. Marske meant for her series to have this message, I applaud her. She created a series that is fun, sexy, and engaging while also sneaking in a fantastic lesson about the importance of sharing with the less fortunate.

 Falling Bodies by Rebecca Roanhorse is the third selection in the Far Reaches collection published by Amazon. Unlike some of the other short stories in the collection, Falling Bodies focuses more on what it means to be human in a universe filled with aliens. In particular, it raises the question of whether being human is an identity that only comes with being born on Earth or simply by your DNA. The ending of Falling Bodies may be triggering for some readers, but it is an ending that emphasizes the question of what makes a human a human. Falling Bodies is the type of story that haunts you long after you finish it. 

Void is the short story submission by Veronica Roth for the Far Reaches collection. Occurring in the void of space travel between planets, Void is as much a murder mystery as it is an examination of humankind in space. Ms. Roth's story also explores the phenomenon of time dilation and its impact on the human experience. Between its emptiness and the time dilation, space is one scary space. But, one can find solace in the fact that no matter where they happen to be, humans will always be humans. Ms. Roth's Void may not be as sobering as some of the other stories in the Far Reaches collection, but it does make you look at space as something other than the next frontier to overcome.