Janee

DNF @ 28%. The premise is interesting and I like the main character Xan but I hate the way this is written. It's dialogue heavy and there's page after page of info dumping. Instead of developing the world I was told the entire tragic backstory of the town rich woman and Xan's best friend. Then in the next chapter we have to sit through the also tragic backstories of two angsty teenagers who've both had parents die. Then when we do get lore or world building it's just thrown at us all at once with no buildup. By chapter three we're just told what Xan's secret abilities are and what other secrets he's been keeping from his closest friends. There was no tension, no mystery, and no time to let things breathe. Just information dumping. I could not get into the writing style at all and had to drop it.

DNF @ 10%. This is what I get for not really reading a synopsis before picking up a book. My complaints are 1) It's a teen dystopia novel and I don't tend to enjoy books about teens or dystopian worlds. 2) Overly flowery language. I just couldn't get into the prose. It felt like every sentence had at least 1 flowery metaphor thrown into it. 3) It's written like a journal or diary entry from the main characters POV. And she crosses out sections of her own thoughts when she wants to pivot her train of thinking. Maybe in print it isn't annoying but when listening to the audiobook (the narrator is doing a great job btw) there is an audible paper scratch sound every time a thought is crossed out on page and it was starting to drive me crazy. Because it happens almost every 2-3 sentences or more. Overall just not the book for me.

DNF @ 26% I was just totally uninterested. It was so dense with world building that it took me forever just to get to the 20% mark and I only got that far because I decided to start skimming. Then when they did focus on the actual plot I found I didn't care. Call me crazy, but if you're supposed to assassinate an IMMORTAL DRAGON GOD I think you need a better plan than just “seduce him and stab him while he's distracted”. Something tells me this IMMORTAL will probably be harder to kill than that.

DNF @ about 10-15%. In the first few pages I already didn't like the main girl and that's not a great a sign. So I started skipping around and reading the interactions between the king and the performer and it did not get any better or more interesting. She wants revenge for a tragedy that happened to her family but she's obsessive and incredibly ill-informed about it. After 10 years of planning you don't even have all your facts right girl?! And I also don't like how the characters are written. She comes of as a “badass heroine” who talks a big game but we don't see them do anything other than have a shitty attitude. The king seems like a generic “asshole who actually loves deeply” type of love interest and I didn't care about him.

DNF @ 31%. I was just very bored with the plot. I really tried to get through this one because it's not a long book, but I found myself totally uninterested in the plot, the characters, the mystery. Just all around I didn't care. I was forcing myself to pick this one up just to get further into it and that's no way to read. Thank you to my friend Bryanna for giving me the okay to DNF this one without feeling guilty

3.5 stars because it started to drag a little at the end. I love Alexi and Jay but I think the villain and the third act twist of this installment was the weakest in the series so far. Wolfgang is my new problematic favorite right next to Lucian and me liking him so much took away from his unhinged actions. And Alexi's family drama was not a threat to the relationship at all so that part fell a little flat. Overall, I still loved it and I'm upset that I have to wait an entire week before I can read the next book in the series. I have to know what happens with Wolfgang!

I hate to say it, but Charlie N. Holmberg let me down with this one. I've loved so many of her novels, standalone and series, but The Hanging City left me totally bored. 34% in and I had to just skip to the last 4 chapters or else I would've DNFed. Both this book and Star Mother gave me similar vibes. FL who is likable enough but naive/ annoying at times, paranormal love interest who is more interesting than the FL but we don't get a lot of extra information about him, really cool sounding plot that just ends up falling flat. If you're looking for better Holmberg novels then I would suggest either Whimbrel House Series or the Paper Magician series to start with. This book is aggressively average compared to other Holmberg novels I've read, but if this is your first C.N.H novel then I would say it could be a 3+ star for you.

DNF @ 15%. This is mostly erotica and I didn't know that when I picked it up. I don't mind spice but this was a whole lot of spice that was written like a wattpad novel. I did not have a good time. I get the fated mates trope but the characters deciding that they are in love and want to be together forever after they've only known each other for 15 minutes max was a bit much for me. So yeah, this book is getting tossed into virtual black hole of my DNF shelf to be consumed there. Bon voyage book.

2.5 stars. The book is fine. It reads a little like fan fiction with the excessive outfit descriptions and banter. It's a fine mystery although I did predict who the real culprit was quickly. It's written by a lawyer but if you're a lawyer trying to read this then I think you would get infuriated at the courtroom scenes. They are very inaccurate to how an actual courtroom would function.

On one hand, I love this book so much and it has parts that made my heart ache. I loved Ox, I loved the entire Bennett family. I laughed with them and I mourned with them. On the other hand, there were parts of this story that made me so angry that I had to take a day or so before I continued reading.

Overall, I love the story, but it did not need the page length it had. At the start, I was having a great time watching Joe and Ox and the other Bennett boys grow up together. Then we hit a part in the story where everything changes and “the pack is split” as the summary puts it. That portion of the story DRAGS ON FOREVER. We have the same arguments for chapter after chapter with only a few notable things popping up and it got old. Also, in my opinion, both Joe and Ox were making the dumbest decisions possible when it came to fighting the antagonist. And I felt that they were only making those decisions because Klune had a very specific way he wanted the final fight scene to end so he had to do mental gymnastics to make Ox and Joe suddenly turn into the dumbest people alive whenever it came to fighting the villain.

I REALLY want to get to Gordo and Mark's story, but I don't know if my brain is ready to jump back into that 3 year time of separation again. And while Carter is my favorite brother I am very interested in how things are going to play out in Kelly's story. Overall, a solid 4 star read.

A story about a man who falls in love with another man and ends up in a throuple with him and his demon ghost. Happy for them.

Im a Lily Mayne stan so I will read anything she writes and I liked this book a lot. Ari was getting on my nerves a little in the middle when he wouldn't believe in demons but he came around quickly enough. And why was I kind of rooting for “Him” (the demon) to find a permanent vessel so he and Theo could be together all the time by the end? He loves Theo probably even more than Ari does and I want Him to be able to see Theo all the time!

I don't know how to describe this book because it has a lot of things it's saying, but the plot doesn't really go anywhere. But I still really enjoyed it. The basic storyline is about a man (Fetta) who leaves the cult he grew up in and goes to the big city. While there he makes friends, learns that he wants more out of life than fulfilling a destiny his mother thrust on him, and he also learns about the messed up things the people in power in the city are doing. Underneath that story, the book is saying a lot about classism, oppression of minorities, the lasting negative effects of colonialism, the dangers of hive mind, the inadequacies of government, etc. I was having a fantastic time for the first maybe 60% of the book. After that I was still interested in the story, but I was just kind of along for the meandering ride the plot had become. Even up to the last 3 chapters I was thinking “how exactly are we going to end this story? Everything is really up in the air?”. And I would say we got a plot twist I was really not expecting at all but it lead to an anticlimactic ending. So I liked it but I don't know if I could strongly recommend everyone read this. I could see a lot of people getting bored or frustrated with the lack of forward momentum with the plot.

This was very enjoyable. It has he falls first and pining so I loved all that. Emily is smart and capable all the way through the novel and learns that she can open up to other people and trust others as well. She does do something I didn't agree with in the last arc of the story, but it was for scholarly insight so I can't be too mad about it. I LIVED Wendell. His banter with Emily is so fun and I think they are so good together ☺️ I desperately wanted a couple things to happen that didn't so it got -1 star off the total.

Soren had such a snarky, sassy personality in the first book that you wonder why he's like that. Same thing with Gabe and his intense distrust and initial disgust with vampires and Soren. They both had such strong reactions to each other in the first novel that I'm glad we got to see into their minds and pasts and just get through some trauma together. For a couple that is so sassy their love was also so sweet and perfect as well.

DNF at 14%. Is just moving too slow for me and there are too many perspectives for me to get invested in anyone. I love a spooky house story but they haven't even made it to the house or anything spooky at 14% and I'm not interested enough in continuing. Which is upsetting to me because I was really excited for this book.