Nikki

I don't know that I've ever read a book that repeats itself quite as much as this one, not just repeating sentences/scenes from other PoVs, it repeats character thoughts and actions in the same scene too.

Powerless is an amalgamation of many popular Fantasy YA books and I feel like you can tell which ones the author pulled the ideas from as they happen, it's an odd feeling to be bludgeoned by tropes. I feel as though the author needed a good editor and a couple of revisions and it otherwise would've been a fairly standard YA fantasy/romance.

Not sure why so many booktubers/booktokers have recommended this as it's not particularly unusual in plot or characters, nor unique in prose. However, my understanding is that this is a young author, and their first book, so I'm hopeful that a future book may be better.

This is more of a 2 1/2 star read for me.
I re-read this because I remember how much I enjoyed it when I first read it (when I was a teenager) and hoped it would live up to my memory, it didn't.
Whilst it was a page-turner, I very much disliked most of the characters, most of the time; a lot of the conflict felt like they were teenagers who couldn't talk out their problems and my biggest gripe was how her getting pregnant was handled.They had sex (nearly while he was drunk and she sober, Yikes), he gets mad she was a virgin and might get pregnant (no protection), they sort it out (barely), have sex again, she gets pregnant (no surprise) and he's mad that's she pregnant... like, what?...
I'll probably read through the others in the series to see if they hold up to my memory or not.
I do like Susan Mallery's writing style so maybe I'll enjoy her newer stuff more.

I won't say I didn't find some enjoyment in it, however, I will say everything felt rushed in this book. It's insta-love, insta-sex, insta-convenient miscommunication trope, insta-solve the problem. It is what it is, but it would've been better if it had been what it was trying to be which was a full length novel or if it had accepted that it was basically a novella and focused on telling a more narrow scoped story.

I think it's one of my favorite Actually YA books I've read in a while. I still have things I didn't like but they're very minor and I can over look them. I lean more to a 4.5 star but I'll up it to 5 since I can't do halves and this book really does deserve a higher rating.

When I say actually YA, I mean it's appropriate for that age range, 12-17. There's romance but no spice (keep in mind I like, and usually prefer spice in books), and it felt like the characters were teenagers, not adults with their shit together.

The characters were good at what they do but not at everything which was refreshing in the YA genre (especially YA Fantasy) that tends to lead towards the narrative that the protagonist has to be a god at everything; they're only bad, or mildly sucky, at one thing to humanize and humble them to the reader, but even that is just something they'll master in time. They also aren't trying to run a kingdom or be married off to a prince, both of which I can appreciate. I won't speak on if the representation of anxiety/social anxiety is good or not, because even though I have it, it isn't to this extreme. so it's hard to know if this is what it's like for people with a much more severe case or if it's too exaggerated.

So pick it up if you like: YA Fantasy with romance (but don't want to read smut, or are okay with no smut), some blacksmithing, a soft magic system, a found family vibe, and traveling from place to place.

I'm DNFing at the 42% mark. I just don't care about what's going on, I gave it a bit but it never grabbed me and at this point I would rather try to find a book I'll enjoy than push through a book that I'm not interested in.
It felt like it was trying to be a new ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses' to me, and I enjoyed that way more, right from the start. Not for me; not terrible but I did find it a bit boring. Maybe I'll give it another try in the future.

ah, I don't know what to say about this book other than I was just kinda bored by the end. It's written well enough (better than I expected), and it has everything I usually enjoy in a romance but, it just wasn't captivating to me. I didn't feel emotional for the characters and their plights. I give this more of a 2.5 star but I don't think it was poorly done beyond just not being gripping, and that honestly might be on me.

So would I recommend? If you like mild sci-fi, and arranged marriage trope, and don't mind lost of a loved one (several times over) then I guess give it a go.

Listened to the audiobook and it was a fun listen for a couple walks. The ending lost me a bit, just felt kinda meh compared to the rest of the story but was an interesting take on angels and demons.
- does have a ‘mated pairs' type trope, if that's not for you then maybe skip; I will say I think it was done well and wasn't rushed, it stayed enemies to lovers right up until the last few chapters which I can appreciate in a fated mates book

I dnf'd shortly into this book because the characters felt so immature. Perhaps I'm just not in the mood to read a “funny” contemporary romance, I use quotes because obviously I didn't enjoy the comedy. Maybe I'll try again in the future when I'm in a better mood for a overly fluffy rom-com-esque novel, or maybe not.

This is just as relevant now as it was when it came out and that is unfortunate but not surprising.
This book is an overview of the intersectionality of causes, and why it matters. I had hoped it would have even more details about Palestine but, nonetheless I do think this book's messaging is important.

‘nobody is free until we're all free'

I didn't really know anything about the plot when I started the book, and I'm glad I didn't.
I didn't even know it was a horror novel; all I knew was there was a portrait, and I had a vague sense there was a macabre feel to the story.

I highly enjoyed the book whilst despising the characters (in the best possible way), would recommend to anyone who likes stories about uppity victorian era English aristocrats, and those who don't mind disliking the main characters.

Ugh maybe I would've felt different about this if I'd read this when it came out but, ten years later... I'm just annoyed at the characters, at the plot, at the dialog.
The plot feels so dated and honestly, rather stupid and contrived. What society is going to scientifically alter it's population just to remove their ability to feel love? It's ridiculous, it's not like not feeling love would keep them from uprisings and that removing all poetry/classic romantic literature (except Romeo and Juliet conveniently) would do anything of value. The characters are insipid and predicable most of the time, and I just didn't want to be in Lena PoV after awhile. I understand Alex and Lena are suppose to be in ‘young love' but it's too cringy and too dramatic to be romantic. The ‘we've got to runaway together and then we'll be happy' cliché is so overdone.

Once again, another book out of this series that I just couldn't like. This time however I can at least put into words why certain books in this series are two stars for me:

The storyline is basically the same as the other ones. which wouldn't really be a problem if the characters could carry it but...

The female protagonists: all feel the same, sort of bland and virginal, and the women have this feeling of catty fake feminist to them that makes them unlikeable.

The male protagonists: over-possessive(as are the women), and are over-the-top attractive (it's okay if your male protag doesn't have the most gorgeous face, the biggest dick, and have women falling at his feet).

Now spoilers for some of the things in this book in particular that annoyed me. Gabby kept talking about her 'inner fourteen year old' whenever she was feeling attracted to Adam, it's weird to me that this woman has/needs a 'inner' fourteen year old to tell her it's okay to be horny. Kinda weird. She is extremely immature about her attraction to him as well, acting like that fourteen year old she kept mentioning with how she handles her jealousy of other women because they dare look at Adam with lust.Adam seems very immature, especially for someone that is over a thousand years old, he is jealous like an abuser, doesn't even like other men in the room with her. He assaults her when they first meet and no one cares. Then he steals a pair of her underwear, of which he keeps in his pocket, and this is supposed to be 'okay' because she kept one of his shirts. Then he later nearly kidnaps her to force her to take the life elixir and hold her hostage, until the elixir removes her soul so she'll no longer care about having a soul in the first place, but this is 'okay' because he didn't do it and he loves her. There was a few other things that rubbed me wrong throughout this story but I will say it's very readable, and fast pace.

I only have one book left in this series I haven't read and I hope it's a four or five star but I'm not holding my breath either.