Corbie
The translator is clearly not fluent in English and no one bothered to go behind the translator to edit the mistakes.
Features the phrase “whitish liquid drips from agyeman's penis” in the first chapter. That's the vibe of this book.
While it looked like the book was supposed to be formatted with full width characters i t d i s p l a y e d a s n o r m a l h a l f w i d t h c h a r a c t e r s w i t h s p a c e s i n b e t w e e n e a c h l e t t e r m a k i n g i t d i f f i c u l t t o p a r s e a n d r e a d.
The ebook was six pages of scans of parts of pages of a physical book, stray pencil marks and all.
I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads Giveaways
This is a nice little story of a young kitty with a big imagination. Like any other child would, she makes a big mess while playing in her room. But of course she doesn't see it that way, and ignores her mother's request for her to clean it.
Overall Lucy's Big Mess tells a nice story while also telling children why they should clean up after themselves, instead of just saying that they should do it. For such a short book, the characters are relatable enough that my niece is already looking forward to the release of Lucy and The New Baby.
There is a page with a little too much text that probably should have been broken into 2 pages. I would also like to add Bucoy's images show a great attention to detail! You can even spot the marble with the heart in it!
I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.
One of the things I noticed while reading this book is that most of the advice were the tips that anyone could find with quick searched on the topic. There were also parts where the advice was a little too specific to fit to a wide audience of people.
However the plus side of this book is that we know who wrote them, they appear less like the casual advice given by strangers online and more like realistic improvements even if they are essentially the same. The book also stands out more as a reference book, than something you read through all at once.
Firstly, a required disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.
This book had the potential to be a good one but it is unfortunately riddled with grammatical mistakes as well as inconsistencies. For example in chapter 11 Olivia calls Anna by the wrong name (her own name actually), then in chapter 12 Dan picks up the phone and suddenly he changes into Joe. Who is Joe and what happened to Dan? I'm also pretty sure the author just straight up forgot that they had a cat because it is never mentioned again after being named.
The story itself is a nice one, although the main characters do nothing to move the plot. It's more like the story is just happening around them while they drink coffee and have stilted chats that honestly sound like aliens trying to simulate human conversation while waiting for someone to call them to tell them the next plot point.
Emily and Wendell as well as a few new companions flee a faerie attack and head out to the Alps where it's easy to become trapped in the borderlands and maze of doors.
This book was hard to put down. It maintains the cozy atmosphere and fun banner from book 1 while adding in a new understanding of Faerie and the creatures that live there. This is a must read if you enjoyed book 1
ARC received via Netgalley Merged review:Emily and Wendell as well as a few new companions flee a faerie attack and head out to the Alps where it's easy to become trapped in the borderlands and maze of doors. This book was hard to put down. It maintains the cozy atmosphere and fun banner from book 1 while adding in a new understanding of Faerie and the creatures that live there. This is a must read if you enjoyed book 1ARC received via Netgalley
Has a decent collection of idioms, but needs major editing. The writer only tells you the pronunciation for some of the idioms and uses colons instead of commas and periods.
I am intrigued, I am curious, I will need to read the next book. However, this book has major issues.
This city would have failed long before the events of this book, how can it even function if people are just constantly stealing each others bodies for extended periods of time when the only way to catch on to them is a change in eye color? There are millions upon millions of supposed people in this city, if you want to commit a crime there are going to be plenty of people with the same eye color as you to borrow for a few hours while you gave your fun. The other eye thing is also either a huge plot hole or a way to obvious hint to a plot point for a later book, but for the purpose of book one it looks like a very bad plot hole.
#netgalley
Honestly I'd say it's a 4 star as far as memoirs go, but I'm bumping it up since so many people who haven't read it gave it 1 star.
Short chapters, but a lot of them.
Victoria is stuck in the routine of a dysfunctional marriage with an airtight prenup and family expectations locking her in place. But one day she spots a man at her go-to cafe reading the same awful book as her (unnamed, but fairly well known) and she begins to fantasize about the various ways she could rid herself of her husband so that she can chase her happily-ever-after with this stranger. And some of the fantasies are a little too tempting.
I would say that all of the characters minus Luke were unlikeable, which surprisingly works perfectly for this book. And despite not being likeable it's easy to root for the MC as she slowly sets her plans into action (or inaction for some). It's a slow build and while the ending didn't disappoint it could have used an extra chapter in the resolution, a little extra time to unpack what happened.
ARC received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
The opening was so good that I thought for sure I was going to love it, but unfortunately it did not hold up.
The chemistry is okay. It's not unbelievable at least, but both characters had pretty valid reasons for why they should not be together and they just threw all that out the window to rekindle their high school romance.
Also, HR would have a field day with this kind of thing. The premise of this book would likely result in an immediate firing of their supervisor and sexual harassment lawsuit against the company that's allowing this to happen. A friendly competition to see who gets to have their own column? Sure, that's fine. The things Lana has to do for the competition? Not okay. Even before Lana edits the list to be noticeable worse, it's not okay for a workplace to knowingly allow that kind of thing.
ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for honest review.
This is one of those fun mysteries in which you're aware that everyone is capable of the crime, but never quite sure who did it. Unfortunately it‘s just a bit too long for the content and starts to feel like it's dragging around the halfway point.
It reads as though it could be easily adapted into a miniseries, which might be a better medium for this story to be through.
#netgalley
Our leading lady opens a business that is doomed to fail because she has no idea what she's doing, but meets a group, including our romantic interest, that continue to help her until she starts to figure it out. The relationship in this book felt extremely stagnant, it didn't really build up to anything and I don't think the book have been any different if they had just remained as friends the entire time. The story was okay, but I wouldn't consider this to be a romance so much as two awkward people figuring out how to make friends.
*ARC via Netgalley.
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a cozy read in which you follow an academic as she goes to a small remote community and tries to navigate the intricacies of human relations while also trying to learn more about the Faeries that inhabit this region.
The coziness of the first half of the book made the final few chapters feel quite rushed, but still enjoyable. There are parts towards the end that sound much more like book 2 material instead of a book 1 conclusion, but overall definitely worth the read for anyone into cozy fantasies and faeries.
I feel like Heart of the Sun Warrior did a good job at concluding the romance storyline from the first book, but with that being one of the few things not wrapped up in Daughter of the Moon Goddess there wasn't much left to get this book rolling. As such takes about half of the book for it to feel like something's actually happening, but at the same time it was hard to put it down.
Despite the slow start, this book/duology is a great read for anyone interested in fantasy and Chinese mythology
Disclaimer: book received via Netgalley
Before I Do follows Audrey as she prepares to marry her fiancé while the universe seems to be conspiring against her. It's a cute story, a bit cringe in some spots, more about self-discovery than romance. The topics covered are a little dark at times but the story stays lighthearted throughout. It takes a few chapters for the story to settle in, but end up being an easily bingeable book.
*review copy via Netgalley
First third of the book is good on it's own and would have been a great start for one of his other horror novels, but it didn't fit well with the story being told here. Too much of the book was dedicated to world building in the real world just to slip through a portal into a completely different world, this first section would be more suited if we had stayed in the real world.
Second third was an interesting introduction to the Fairy Tale world, but is where we get into King equating people with bodily issues as being scary? I believe the “King of Horror” could to do better than that this far into his career. Not to mention that the hero Empis needs is a blonde hair blue eyed white boy? Was he really going to be unable to help them if his hair stayed it's original color? Is there some unspoken fairy tale logic that prevents brown eyed men from being a prince? It's a fantasy world. It could have been literally anything that made him stand out, but King went for blue eyes and blonde hair.
And finally the third part was like reading a story that King was forced to write instead of a King wanted to tell. Like maybe he got bored of the idea part way through.
I feel like this is a 2.5 but I've decided to round down for the main character's appearance unnecessarily changing and for a bad guy that ended up not being as relevant as he should have been for all the hype at the beginning.
It's a book about werewolves, but somehow the whole werewolf thing felt like it took the backburner to the family issues. It was enjoyable, but I feel like it could have done more for the werewolf thing.
-ARC received via goodreads giveaway
I think book could be useful for anyone pushing past their mid 20s, as friend groups tend to start dwindling down. There are a good number of tips to maintaining your friendships and how to communicate grievances so that your needs in the relationship can also be met. Since the book is for making friends the author didn't delve into it, but it would have nice to have more discussion of when to call it quits in a friendship, since many of the tips came with thorough examples I just feel like this would have been a good opportunity to guide the reader through ending relationships that were not healthy for either party.
My only other gripe for the book is as the author mentions, the studies are often studies of small groups of white heterosexual American college students. So while the book is based in science, the science itself is not a good representation of the population.
*review copy via Netgalley
The summary gives “‘enemies' to lovers” but the book is more of a long stream of misunderstandings and miscommunications. The buildup of an issue in the early chapters is pushed far enough to the side in the middle of the book that the resolution in the last ~4 chapters felt unnecessarily rushed.
This book is very slow paced with very little character development through the bulk of the text. By the time the resolution picks up it's hard to actually care about most of the characters.
Review copy via Netgalley
It's a good book loosely based on events in The Odyssey, but takes place over a hundred years after The Odyssey and is not an Odyssey retelling. If the author had not done that interview I don't think it would have been obvious that she's never finished reading the Odyssey. Despite the numerous weird things the author said in that interview, the book is pretty good for a debut novel but doesn't really stand out against any other Greek myth based novel.