Book Reviews

Serpent and Dove Series:

Shelby Mahurin

This one's a doozy. I read this series a couple years ago and here is the review I wrote at the time. Ranted, more like. I have decided that the world should see it. For the good of humanity. Please enjoy.

ok sooooo Serpent and Dove. read the first book. it was good. great even. love Lou. Reid not so much. listen. the whole religious dominant aspect of the book almost turned me off even if it's something of an enemy. that gives you a clue how i feel about Reid. in the beginning, we all hated him, did we not? but then of course Lou and Reid started actually getting along and falling in love and whatever and life was fine. life was good. Reid was making a slight comeback. And then the conflict happens of course. he finds out she's a witch and says asshole stuff and she runs away blah blah blah. i will die for Lou. she does no wrong in my eyes. Reid on the other hand can suck my big fat dick. i already didn't think he'd made a full comeback before the climax. he still thought what he was doing was right and just and whatever. he still hated magic and witches. and then he briefly thinks what he said to Lou in the moment was wrong and realizes he still kinda loves her and decides to go save her. first of all, a bit late buddy. fuck you for that. fuck him for saying any of those things to begin with. and praise Ansel for telling him so. ok so he decides to go save her and kills the Archbishop for her and finds out he has magic and it all goes to shit but they survive of course. and then he apologizes a little bit. i'm still firmly on the side of fuck him at this point, mind you. the amount of groveling he needs to do to atone for just the things he said to her in the tower has not nearly been reached, especially not with his shoddy apology. he's all "it doesn't matter that you're a witch." fuck off. you don't love somebody in spite of something. you love all of them. Lou loved him since she fell for him. never stopped even until the end. forgave him on the drop of a dime. god bless her soul. i love her but she doesn't have the insight i do, clearly. so then the first book ends. Reid's in turmoil because he killed a wretched man and has 'evil' magic. hurray.

now i'm only halfway through the second book, so i'll update this review later obviously, but for now let's talk about the second book for a bit. once again, fuck Reid. i wasn't sure how i felt about him having magic in the first place because i always hate when authors take away the female empowerment part of books by giving men power. fuck men. they should have no power. but whatever. i can appreciate it for the plot. anyways we've established that Reid has not nearly groveled enough for hist first offence and i fear the time for that has come and gone. now he has other offences. his whole "i hate magic, magic is evil" thing he's got going on is getting old. listen i get that one month is not enough time to change a lifetime of beliefs, but still. grow up. Ansel can accept it. while Reid's over here crying because he has magic, Lou is doing all she can to comfort him. going out of her way to make sure they don't use magic with the disguises. going out of her way for HIM in general tbh. Reid's plagued by the thoughts of all his killing lately, oh but that never bothered him before. not when he was killing magical people. he still doesn't even feel bad about that i don't think. i don't see what Lou sees in him. she deserves better. and then Reid goes and says he won't stand being around magic at all. i'm glad there's a rift between them now. i hope she breaks his heart and he comes back and does some actual groveling. not the stupid little apologies he did before. so Reid the pussy can't be around magic. Lou even now tried to comfort him, but i'm glad she sent him away with Claud and his group. good riddance. what i don't like is that Reid still doesn't have his head out of his ass and Lou is still trying to comfort him when they meet back up. Reid is in the wrong here. has been in the wrong for a while. oh but when Lou uses her magic, loses control of her magic rather, she becomes the bad guy. she uses her magic to save his LIFE bro. it's always for him. everything she does is to save his life, and he doesn't even have the gall to say thank you. he just silently despises and judges her for her magic and for acting like her mother. how is Lou supposed to know what to do? how is she supposed to know how to deal with her emotions like love? it's not like she has a mother or father who loves her. she has a handful of friends that she literally didn't meet until these books besides Coco. and don't get me started on Lou accidentally losing Reid's balisarda or whatever. it was swallowed up by a tree dude. first of all, it's not in any way her fault. second of all, grow up. he had like a whole temper tantrum over his precious little sword knife thing. i get it. losing someone is hard. killing people is probably hard on the mind. killing someone you thought of as a father figure has got to be taxing. but the guy was shit. and he's killed before.

i have so so much i could write about this series. sorry this was so focused on Reid, but men suck. like i said, i love Lou and she can do no wrong. if i was her, i would have run away by now with all the hate she gets. i would be crying every night, lashing out at everyone. i literally do cry reading this book. i cry because of how they treat Lou sometimes. i'm such an empath really. but she's clearly stronger than me. i'm a sucker for strong, independent women who might turn a little evil for a time. i'll update this review when i'm finished or at least farther along in the series. i left off with the group just getting back to Ceserine after gathering allies or whatever. we'll see how this goes.

***
update:

ok so i've just finished the second book. loved it. i don't take back what i said about Reid, but i suppose i like him now. ugh. what can i say? i'm a romantic. i still think there was some missing groveling, but i do like the way they both kind of healed before coming back together. and then everything went to shit again like usual. book ended in a climax so i'm of course going to start the next one in like two seconds. poor Ansel. sad but predictable. anyways here's what i hope for in the next book: 1) Reid finds out sooner rather than later that Lou is not Lou and has been possessed, immediately would be great; 2) i looked at the first chapter and it's from Nicholina's pov but we better get a good portion of real Lou in this book or i will rage. and by that i mean she better become unpossessed or whatever before the halfway point of the book; 3) Lou and Reid were in a good place before the climax of this book and i hope it stays that way for the entirety of this last book. and really that can only happen if Reid isn't a complete idiot and finds out Lou is really Nicholina right away; 4) lastly, it's got to be Lou that defeats her mother. she deserves the kill for christ's sake. i hate when authors take that away from the main female leads. it should be Lou who wins in the end and she should become queen and rule with goodness and morale and Reid with her and they'll unit the kingdom and live happily ever after. like i said, i'm a romantic.

***
final update:

ahhhh i've finished! read the last book in all of 1 day. read for 12 hours. yay. now let's briefly talk about it. so my first wish came true. they found out Lou was posessed pretty early on. thank god. BUT i did NOT appreciate Reid losing his memory! that does not follow my third rule that Lou and Reid stay in a good place! i hate memory loss tropes, but again, i can appreciate it for the plot. ugh. whatever. so now Reid's back to asshole Reid. and right after he just got the love of his life back. way to go dude. if Lou wasn't as strong as she was, if her soul was more broken from Nicholina, you would have basically just killed her right then. jeez. but Lou loves him of course, so she fights for him and doesn't give up on him. how lovely. i did like how Celie and Jean Luc joined the fray. anyways i did also like how Lou won back Reid's heart, though i think if the author truly wanted that plot, they should've done it with more time for that to happen you know? i mean we were right back to where we started and Reid falls back in love with her after like 2 days? i feel like that maybe could've been a second book plot line. but i wouldn't have liked it there either. whatever. i'm a romantic so of course i liked how he fell back in love with her. that was very sweet. and the ending. a sufficient amount of suffering and dramatics. exactly what i like in my books. beautiful. and it was Lou who actually cut down her mother in the end. another one of my wishes fulfilled. i did like Celie though. and she helped of course. i forgot about Ansel! man. i was sad when he died but that epilogue? sobbing. i do wish the book was a little longer. wish there was more healing after the climax and whatnot. i also think Reid needs to do more groveling for willingly forgetting the love of his life. i mean come on. he could have destroyed her. i don't care if you were saving her life. you hurt my precious Lou you dingus. but i guess i do tend to be a bit harsh. oh well. now i'm in my post book depression so i need to start a new series. i started the Demon Days Vampire Nights series before Serpent and Dove. read the first three books. might go back to that now. or find another popular action romance novel with a badass female lead. those are my favorites after all. i know i said i don't follow the book bandwagon, but i'm gonna have to be a hypocrite for a while. there's some books i want to read i can't help it!

Captive Prince Series:

C.S. Pacat

This book reviews page would simply never be complete without this series. The Captive Prince series is another one I read fanfiction for, which should tell you a lot. I loved this series. There was so so much angst, but the happy ending was worth it. I would die for Damen and Laurent. I hope they live happily ever after and never die and never face any more hardships ever.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
These books are another definite re-read for me. I reread Kings Rising whenever I want to feel a romance that just defies all odds and perserveres through the most toughest of times. I don't like to re-read the first two books because they make me angry and sad. I feel so much for Laurent. I feel so much for Damen. They both deserved better. I mean, could you imagine already living in an extremely hostile and mentally abusive situation, when the uncle who's been the cause presents you with the man that killed your brother in cuffs. The amount of strength Laurent had to not kill Damen? Maybe people disagree and think he was still to cruel, but I'll tell you one thing, if I came face to face with an enemy soldier that personally ran my brother through with a sword, there is no telling to what I would do. So the whipping was what it was, in my opinion. I don't like to re-read it because, again, sad, but I can understand it.

Everything else that happens in the first couple books is a mix of depressing and disturbing. I just have such a soft spot for Laurent. He was poisoned by his own uncle and still saves the man who left him there to die, essentially. The same man who killed his brother, I might add. Now, just because I have a soft spot for Laurent doesn't mean I don't love Damen and think he deserved better. I just wish they both got out of there sooner. And I just love how Laurent is so cold and impassive on the outside, but he has such a kind heart. Even in the end, when he was chained and knew it was his end, he still fought to get Damen justice. And he didn't think anyone would do the same for him. I just. Ugh! I think the main thing I like about Laurent is how smart he is. Utterly alone but still plotting and planning to dethrone his tyrant uncle. And, ugh, (so many things to love) I love how Laurent is just effortlessly good at things. The whole Okton scene might be my favorite in the whole series. So awesome and hot.

I just gravitate towards broken characters, and these books were full of them. The Regent might very well be the worst villain in any of the books I've read. Horrible and murderous and perverted with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Laurent was assaulted by his uncle, the Regent, at the lowest point in his life. The very uncle still making his life hell years later. And you can just see how it breaks him. And how Damen reacted when he found out? I just love them. I love that they can be happy together after the "war". I am so glad we got a short epilogue novella. I re-read that the most.

Breaking Legacies:

Zoe Reed

This was one of the best books I had read in a while. It's a lesbian romance between an escaped princes and a warrior who was sent to find her. The plot was amazing. The romance was amazing. I loved everything about this book. I recently got a library card and this was one of the first books I checked out. I physically could not put it down.

With all the amazing aspects of any popular fantasy novel, this one is obviously much better because it's gay. You'll laugh, you'll cry. Please read this book for the good of humanity. I am trying my best to do my due diligence of spreading the gay agenda. It's been a while since I read this one and now that I'm writing this review, I want to go read it again.

Wolfsong Series:

T.J. Klune

God, how I love T.J. Klune. All of his books are amazing and I've read so many of them. The Wolfsong series is one of my favorite book series ever. Ever book was phenomenal, but the first book will always hold a special place in my heart. Joe and Ox will always have a special place in my heart. The first book is the one I re-read the most.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
So what do I like? Besides everything? Like I've said before, I'm a sucker for main character sympathy and one of the best things I find about this series is that Ox saves the day in the end. He's been through so much and I love how he just gains power and confidence in every book until he's the alpha of everything at the end and defeats the worst enemy of all. There is literally nothing wrong with Ox. I will be an Ox sympathizer until I die. He would do anything for those he loves and the people around him would do anything for him. And I love Joe, of course. He loves Ox more than life itself and Ox deserves nothing less. Oh how I love love.

Besides Ox and Joe, I think Robbie and Kelly are my next favorite. They are so cutie and Robbie's story was so interesting to read. Every character goes through hardships, but in the end, it just brings them all closer together. I loved how all the books flow together. Each plot was different and unique and I have absolutely zero complaints. I laughed and cried both so much throughout these books. I remember being hesitant before I read the book for the first time, looking at it on my TBR list with not much interest. Maybe the synopsis didn't appeal to me that much at first, but oh my god was this series amazing. I want a short Ox and Joe epilogue with no more conflict, no more fighting. Just kisses and happily ever afters. T.J. Klune, if you see this, I love you and all of your books.

Harry Potter Series:

J.K. Rowling

Why not just throw the Harry Potter series on here. Even though J.K. Rowling is a homophobic, transphobic piece of shit, read the Harry Potter books. You are never to old to read them. They will always be entertaining.

Not much else I want to say. The movies are great. The books are great. Drarry is real. I won't reread the books because Drarry is not canon and it makes me sad. Drarry is the best ship (for Draco and Harry) and I will hear no arguments. Stop pushing your hetero agenda onto me!

All for the Game Series:

Nora Sakavic

I write and read fanfiction for this series. I feel like that's all you need to know. These books are outlandish and amazing and I've never been so obsessed with another series in my 20 years of living. I am waiting for all the books in the Sunshine Court series to come out becasue lord knows I'll be obsessed with that one too and it deserves binging in a blanket cave for days on end.

Throne of Glass Series:

Sarah J. Maas

Ok, let's talk Sarah J. Maas. First of all, love her books. Love ACOTAR, love Crescent City, and love TOG. The big three, if you will. There's just something about a badass female lead that really gets to me, and I love the romance as well, of course. I think I am only going to put my review of the Throne of Glass series because I think it's the best. Now, I would argue that my favorite book from her, the one I re-read the most, is the first Crescent City book (House of whatever and whatever), but I haven't read the next book in the series, and to be honest I probably never will. I've just lost interest. Have moved on to bigger and better things. Just kidding. But yeah I just don't think I'll ever finish the series. Still love her books, still love badass YA fantasy novels. But I think I've moved on from the mainstream ones. You probably won't see a lot of book review on here that would come up in booktok unless I read the book a while ago. I just like to keep my little books to myself.

Anyways, let's talk Throne of Glass. Arguably the best book series ever. Or maybe I just read it in a time in my life where I needed it and now the legacy it holds in my head is simply unbeatable. Like I already mentioned, I love myself a badass female lead, and this series has loads of them. Aelin, of course, is my favorite. Listen, I'm a rule follower, what can I say! In most books and movies and TV shows, I will root for the main character. The main character will be my favorite. The author wants me to think a certain way about a character? Guess what. I will. I'm not a complex person. Don't get me wrong, I love all the women (and men) in TOG, but no one gets to me as much as Aelin. I would die for her. There aren't enough words to express my love for these books. I just love how, no matter what she's faced with, Aelin perserveres with a confidence she might not even feel.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
I love Sarah J. Maas's story building. In all her books, really. I loved all the different plotlines in TOG and loved how they all came together in the end. I think the only thing I would've liked more about the series is if the ending had more of Aelin saving the day in battle, with one final plan that ended it all. I'm a sucker for the happily ever afters, okay! I want my main character to pull through and get their final hurrah before the end. I love that Yrene saved the day, essentially. But I feel like Aelin faced so many hardships, has been through so much trauma, and she should've been the one to end it. But, I do understand that might've been a little much maybe? A little predictable.

If you haven't read these books yet, what are you doing? I feel like they're a right of passage into book culture. Screw the classics. Read TOG. You won't regret it.

Red White and Royal Blue:

Casey McQuiston

This book will always be one of my favorites. I've re-read it about a million times and when the movie came out, I watched it like 5 times in a row. I love how the characters are written. I love the plot. I love everything! Alex? So funny and smart. Henry? Timid and so darn cutie. This is such a feel good book and is worth the read. This is a short review but only because there are not enough words to describe how cute and sweet and loving and awesome this book is. Go read it right now! The book is better than the movie, though I thought the movie was cute too.

Lady of Mystery:

Ellie St. Clair

Oh here we go. This one's a doozy. My first bad review on here. So this review is from about a year ago I think? I typed it up on my computer to vent and now I am sharing it with you. I was on a romance kick at this time, for context. (Still am tbh. Who doesn't love a good romance?) Please excuse the lowercase everything and bad grammar. This was very much a rant. And very much dramatic. But I digress.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
ok so i've been on a romance kick lately. it's hard for me to read a book in general if it doesn't have some sort of romance in it. so i'm no longer repressing myself and have just gone straight to the romance genre. i really do love those fairytale, happily ever after romances. and i like historical romances, but it's sometimes hit or miss. this book, for example, was a miss for me. i don't know why it got pretty good reviews on kindle, though i didn't really read the reviews. with historical romances, in my opinion as a raging liberal, authors walk a fine line. like ok women don't have rights, but how is this love interest going to respond to that. anyways this book, the Lady of Mystery i think it's called, i thought was going to be great. at first, i loved Phoebe. she was amazing. wanted to change the world, fight for women's rights, refused to fall into the restraints society attempted to put on her and was her own independent woman. now Jeffery i hated, naturally. as a man, he obviously didn't believe in Phoebe's ideals. well not obviously, because everyone should believe in equality, but whatever. i was willing to accept his stupidness and ignorance and rudeness and cockiness and all that for a brief moment, because i thought he would change. i figured the author of this book cared about women's rights based on how they wrote Phoebe and would never allow such a man to be a love interest for her. well long story short, i was disappointed. i made it through half way without Jeffery even changing his ignorant ideals in even the slightest. the romance was ok at times, but never will i ever in a million years EVER be ok with even attraction between such a horrible person. and maybe some would argue that he was a gentleman most of the time, but to that i would say i give absolutely zero shits how he acts on the outside if inside he believes women should have less rights than men simply because of their gender. i have decided not to read any more historical romances for the time being because of this book. like what the fuck. and at the end, Phoebe was actually willing to step back from her activist work for a man who didn't believe in the rights of women. AND even at the very end after the supposed "make-up" after the inevitable conflict, Jeffery STILL disagreed with some of the things in Phoebe's paper outlining FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS. fuck this book honestly. i skimmed through the second half. couldn't even bring myself to read the sexy scenes because i was honestly pretty disgusted. so now that i'm done with these historical romances, i guess i'll read some modern romances. sigh. i liked the historical setting. it seemed more romantic, more simple, more happily ever after. well fuck that. i'm too much of a feminist for this shit.

The Darkness Outside Us:

Eliot Schrefer

I read this book probably 4 years ago now, and it remains one of the best books I've ever read. Since it's been so long, this review isn't going to be too in depth, but to anyone who sees this, this book is everything and you should go read it. I literally used this book, this YA gay romance book, in essays when applying to colleges. This book shook me to my core. It is so devastating that I will probably never reread it, seeing as I am such a sensitive soul. Maybe when I'm not a depressed 20 year old. Do not be fooled by my tenderness, this book does have a happy ending and it's amazing.

The romance of this book was, in short, heartwrenching. We follow the story of two boys who keep finding and loving each other in spite of the many hardships they face. God, I love this book. Aside from romance, this book analyzes many more in-depth questions of the universe. Okay, maybe I'm being dramatic, but whatever. Here is an excerpt from the essay I was talking about. Don't judge me. I'm not the best writer, okay. Chill out. All you need to know for context is that the essay is about how I like space.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
"One of my favorite young adult books containing space travel is Eliot Schrefer’s The Darkness Outside Us which follows the journey of two boys as they venture through space to find a new, habitable planet after theirs is destroyed. The twist is that the boys journeying are a couple of the many clones of themselves hidden on the spaceship. Every hundred years or so, when the ship is in need of repairs, a new pair of clones is awoken, without recollection of any of the past clones’ lives or of even getting on the ship to begin with, and then killed once the repairs are complete. The goal is that this process will continue until the ship reaches its destination and the last pair of clones starts cultivating a new race of humans. This book is a beautiful and tragic rendering of the loneliness of space and the potential of close proximity as a cause for both strong relationships and volatile hostility.
While The Darkness Outside Us may be a fictional book, it effectively conveys the concept of eternal space through the characters’ loneliness and isolation, and it poses the questions of what happens after Earth can no longer support human life. The technology and advanced ideas in the novel have merit, if such things were possible in real life, which they very well could be in billions of years when the earth is eventually engulfed by the sun. The book touches upon the notion that (1) no human can live long enough to brave space travel and land on a faraway planet and (2) no spacecraft can sustain life for the entire duration of the trip. "

Mindwalker:

Kate Dylan

I thought this book was amazing. If you are (like I was) looking for a distopian fantasy with a badass female lead and an enemies to lovers style romance that doesn't overwhelm the plot, this book is perfect for you. I thought the story was great. I thought the characters were great. I laughed. I cried. Though the book really isn't sad, I'm just an empath. And I'm not joking. I cry at the most not sad books. I cry if someone is being mean to the main character. I cry when the main character feels lost and alone. I cry at literally any minor inconvenience the characters face. You will notice that will be a common theme in all my reviews. Anyways, I thought this book was so fun and awesome.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
The ending was less than satisfying in my opinion. It felt like there were just so many plotlines that didn't get their ending, but I guess that's kind of the point? Like things don't just resolve themselves immediately. It also gives the reader the ability to use their imagination to how things played out. As a romantic, I wish Sil and Ryder had an epilogue where they were all happy and kissing, but whatever. I can use my imagination

Another plotline I would've loved to see through is everything with Sil's family. We didn't get to see her reunite with her parents after she was free of her CIP. I'd have liked her to go to them and have a great reunion where she said she was okay and would be living for many years to come. What can I say, I just love happy endings. Not that we didn't get one... But still!