REVIEW: Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

My Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

I can't believe I waited this long to read this... it had been sitting on my TBR since it was first released, but I was in the middle of so many other series at the time that it just kind of fell by the wayside. I'm sorry now that I waited so long.

The story here is a very unique concept and an engaging and quick read... lots of detailed world building and action kept me reading well into the night, hard to put down. Fortunately reading on my Kindle helps with the late night readings. ;)

I love strong, female leads, and while Yelena was knocked down and broken at the start of this book, when given a second chance at life, she quickly bounced back to reclaim her strong-willed, iron-clad demeanor despite all the odds against her.

As a potential love interest, Valek presents a mysterious picture. He keeps his emotions close to his chest and we never really know what he's thinking throughout the story. To that end, I have a copy of The Study of Poisons which is this same story told from Valek's POV, and I'm currently reading that one now. Based on how Poison Study ended, and the relationship that developed between these two, I'm really intrigued to reread this story from his point of view and delving into his mind.


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REVIEW: A Court of Silver Flames (Court of Thorns and Roses #4) by Sarah J. Maas

My Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

This installment in the Court of Thorns and Roses series centers primarily around Nesta and Cassian. As the rest of the gang are strategizing to prevent another war, Nesta is fighting the demons inside her. We get a deep dive into her character, find out what makes her tick and why she is the way she is. Yeah, since the change she's got that whole PTSD thing going on, causing her to push people away... but she was a major bitch even before then as a human. And I like that we get to find out more about that too. While I didn't really appreciate the way the rest of the "Inner Circle" went about forcing her to deal with her issues, I'm glad it was effective. For in the end, Nesta has gone from a cold, uncaring individual to a passionate, headstrong badass!

While her struggles and sacrifices are laid bare for the reader to see, she continues to build a wall around herself throughout most of the book to keep from opening up her emotions to others. The new friendships she develops with Gwyn and Emelie (and the house) are heartwarming, and eventually help her to grow and develop, to open up and overcome most of her issues. Plus the whole Vakyrie warrior thing was awesome! (My computer is actually named Valkyrie so yeah, I've got a thing for them!)

This book definitely fell outside of the Young Adult category for sure though... the sex scenes were pretty hard and explicit. Not really any complaints from me, but it wasn't until I got to these parts that I understood SJM abandoned the YA category for this title completely.

While the outside plot here was a bit minimal, it's the character development of Nesta that was the primary focus of this book. And I can't believe I gobbled down all 757 pages in just 4 days. I only hope Nesta didn't completely lose all her sharpness to become a meek flower like Elain. I'll be looking forward to upcoming books in the series to find out.

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REVIEW: A Court of Frost and Starlight (Court of Thorns and Roses #3.5) by Sarah J. Maas

My Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Very little "action" happening in this novella, but from what I understand, it's meant to be more of a "bridge" anyway from A Court of Wings and Ruin (book 3) to A Court of Silver Flames (book 4, or possibly book 5 if you're looking at Amazon since Amazon considers ACOFAS as book 4, while Goodreads calls it book 3.5) *shrug* 🤷🏼

That said, it's a fun little read that takes place during the Winter Solstice... and since the characters should be taking time to spend with family and not putting out fires anyway, it fits. I mean, they can't be at war 365 days a year. Even the bad guys like to take a little time off to celebrate the holidays! 🤣

We get a bit more insight into Nesta and Cassian, which will actually be expanded upon in much greater detail in ACOSV. Yay! So was this book really required? NO. Could it's contents have been seamlessly incorporated into the following book (ACOSF) instead? YES, definitely! Should this book have cost less than the others in the series? I think so, yes. Though I rented it from my local library anyway, so that didn't really affect me.

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REVIEW: Rule of Wolves (King of Scars #2) by Leigh Bardugo

My Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Much more action in this one than in King of Scars. It was exciting and edge-of-your-seat moments pretty much the whole way through. I always liked Zoya's character, but even more so after this book! And Nikolai... such a rogue! For some reason, the Mad Hatter 🎩from Alice in Wonderland would pop into my head every so often during his dialogue. 🤣 He is just so downright odd and spunky most of the time! I'm glad Nina (view spoiler)[finally got her happy ending with Hanne. She totally deserves it! (hide spoiler)] I will seriously miss these characters and hope that there will be further books taking place in this universe in the near future.

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REVIEW: King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

My Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

King of Scars was a fine addition to the Grishaverse series, though I didn't really like it as much as the Shadow & Bone trilogy. As another friend of mine claimed, I think this was probably the weakest of the Grishaverse books so far. Not to say it wasn't a good read, but I just miss the (mis)adventures of Alina and Mal! This story centers around King Nikolai as he's trying to fight the darkness that was left within him by the Darkling... so there's a lot of internal struggle going on within the king. There's also a lot of Nina, who's acting as a spy up in Fjerda... not my favorite place. The book ends with a bang however, an obvious lead up to a lot more action to take place in the sequel, which I'm looking forward to reading next.

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REVIEW: Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

My Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

While I was vaguely familiar with the name Baba Yaga, this was actually the first book or story I'd read about her and wow, I enjoyed it immensely. It was steeped in history and so engaging. I love the story of the sentient little house with chicken legs, how the story takes place in today's times but through flashbacks and memories, tells the full story of Baba Yaga, her daughters, and the house, Thistlefoot. I was also glad to have read this on my Kindle so I could easily look up unfamiliar words and terminology, since it used a lot of Yiddish vocab.

Story-wise, I was disappointed with how the siblings held so much back from one another, but I suppose that was in their nature... Bellatine not trusting Issac because he ran away when they were younger. But when Isaac tried to hide the truth from her about the Longshadow Man, that was frustrating... if anything, he should've been trying to get her to trust him. But who's to understand men and their thinking. LOL

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REVIEW: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

My Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Hundreds Hall had its heyday back in the prewar era and since then, has fallen into a state of disrepair and gloom. It's current inhabitants, the latest family of Ayres, are gentry stock that have fallen victim to the times and their lives are slowly being chipped away. But when Dr. Faraday, a local family physician visits the house, he invariably becomes entwined with the family and their various ordeals. But just what is torturing this family and driving them to such decline and madness... that is the question!

This was a spooky tale of a family slowly drawn to the brink of madness by the supernatural events going on in their house. Of course, during these times, any mention of supernatural occurrences was met with disbelief and claims of hysteria. So you've got the good Dr. Faraday, who is the narrator of this tale, trying to explain everything away with what he believes to be very rational explanations. I felt like screaming at his close-mindedness... but then again, during these early days of science, parapsychology, and even psychology itself, was still looked upon with so much skepticism, so I guess having a doctor believe in that sort of thing back then would've felt completely out of context for the time.

It was the atmospheric writing and sense of dread that kept me engaged however. For Sarah Waters is a fantastic writer that, even when I don't care for the characters as much, I'm still very much drawn into the story. I think I'd have to say little Betty was my favorite character by far!


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REVIEW: A Court of Wings and Ruin (Court of Thorns and Roses #3) by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As Pyrithian is preparing for war, Feyre goes undercover at the Spring Court to do a bit of investigating. When she later meets with all the High Lords of all 7 kingdoms, her and Rhysand must decide who to trust—who is ally and who is foe—and as usual, things are not what they seem.

This third book in the series was perhaps my favorite, just barely inching out ACOMAF. Feyre has really come into her own and started to embrace her new powers, which she was just learning to use and control in the second book. And because of that, I grew to like her so much more in this installment. While there were some sad bits, there were also a lot of happy and victorious ones as well. I had originally thought this was to be the end of the series, but I believe SJM determined she'd be continuing prior to the release of this, so a few minor story lines were left open, such as with Lucien, Elain and Nesta. I'm looking forward to reading book four, A Court of Frost and Starlight, soon.

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