Suzi

God this was heartbreaking 💔

Set on a maternity ward during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, it was grief after grief with no break.

Although I was totally unable to stop reading this, I do feel like it was lacking in depth at times. I also felt like the moment between Julia and Bridie came out of nowhere, this really needed some more fleshing out.

This was my first from Emma Donoghue but won't be my last.

This was a quick and really creepy read. The whole 'Other Mommy' entity really got my skin crawling but I also had some issues with it.

As it's told from Bela's POV, it does get a bit repetitive and samey around the middle.

Also, Ursula (aka real mother) is possibly one of the most unlikeable characters, hearing her constant anger, whining and pity party was nearly unbearable.

I like Josh Malerman's short stories, and I feel like this one could have worked as a novella rather than a full length novel.

Wow, this was so good. Definitely up there with one of my favourite books of the year.

Not only was this great as its own book, but grouped with the first books in the 3 series in the saga released at the same time, it was outstanding.

- Demon (Archives of the Godeater) - 5 stars

- Deathless (Annals of the Godeater) - 4 stars

- Herald (Age of the Godeater) - 5 stars

Although the author recommends reading them in order of Age, Annals, Archives, I read them the other way around and I'm pleased I did, as I feel like I already had some background and depth to the history of the story before we got to this age.

I loved that in each book, we became connected to the characters, only to have our view of them twisted in the next book. Both the humans and the angels have done good things and awful things, so who are the good guys? Neither of them? I think if I'd read Herald first, I wouldn't have these questions which I'm now dying to find out the answers to.

Just now the wait for the second books to come out!

DNF @ 52%

Honestly I kind of hated this and can't bring myself to continue.

I really liked the opening chapter - the way Kes ripped the guy apart by profiling him and calling out his bullshit was good, but honestly that was the only thing I liked. I thought we would have more of Kes using her profiling skills, but it wasn't mentioned again (at least in the half of the book I read).

All of the 'Brandee' video were cringy and repetitive, I just started skipping them as what they covered was just regurgitated in the next Kes chapter anyway so they were pointless.

I didn't like whole backstory of Kes and Jeb - the way they met on a one night stand then he and his wife just happened to come to her for counselling. And the sex scenes were unnecessary and felt completely out of place in the story, as well as them being practically copied and pasted from one to the next.

My breaking point was the whole flashback chapters to Kes starting her 'government job' and the testing/harassment by Dennis. It was just so badly written and unbelievable.

I looked up some spoiler reviews to see how this panned out and I'm happy to DNF this one, it sounds like it just gets more ridiculous as it goes.

It's a shame as this was a first from this author but I'm now so put off trying anything else from her.

As with most Ruth Ware books, they're a little predictable at times but so hard to stop once you get into them.

This was no different, I think the first 30% was perhaps a little drawn out with the reality show setup but after that it flew by. I really enjoyed the twists and how it ended too.

The narration by Imogen Church was so good so definitely recommend the audio for this one.

Congrats to Deathless for being the winner of The Most Abrupt Ending of the Year! 😂

My Kindle said I had 31mins left and then it ended! I was so shocked for it to end on that specific point. Obviously major segue to the next book but it was still jarring.

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as Demon, it was a totally different setup and vibe but I did like way this one did. It was much more political and I really loved the characters.

As with Demon, I'm really looking forward to how this continues in book 2.

This started off strong - I initially liked the back and forth interview sort of setup between the detectives and Inara, it was like an episode of Law & Order SVU (which I love!).

This started to get a bit samey around the mid-point though and although it was quick enough to get through I just felt a little bored and flat after that.

This was my second attempt at this book and I found the audiobook was definitely the way to go for me. Steven Pacey's narration was next level and the huge range of voices/accents he was able to add for the many characters was just so good to listen to, I especially liked his voice for Glokta!

Most people I've heard review this book comment on the character work and I have to agree. The plot itself is quite slow and long, however the thing which really kept me invested was the characters.

I'm really not sure where this series is going to go, amazingly I've avoided spoilers, but I'm looking forward to continuing soon.

Oh my god! I absolutely inhaled this. Yes, granted, it's only 200 pages, but still!

This is super dark, grim and brutal. It has torture, abuse, forced cannibalism, it is horrific, but it's so good. The determination and drive Dien has to escape is amazing character, and what Rob J Hayes can do in just a few chapters is also amazing.

I NEED to get Dein's next book please 🙏

I'm really not sure how I felt about this one - on the one hand it was utterly grim and despressing, which perfectly captures what these women went through as they were captured, raped, abused, and passed around like objects. On the other hand, even though I can appreciate what it's trying to do, I don't think I enjoyed it as a story. Achilles was portrayed so strangely and his story, conflicts and relationships took over the story of the women. I've never read The Iliad or Song of Achilles so can't really compare them as other reviewers had, but I still found this a bit disappointing.

A very good ending a solid series, at least the first arc of it.

I've struggled a little with the pacing throughout this series, but the end of this one really got me emotional and I teared up at the epilogue. 😥

I'll definitely be continuing with the next arc of the series, but I worry it won't be the same without certain characters around anymore. 💔

Soft DNF @ 72%

I am shocked that I'm DNFing this one, at least for now. Part of Your World and Yours Truly were so good, I flew through them in a couple of days each and were instant 5 stars, however this one just felt completely different and I can't force myself to carry on reading it at the moment.

For one thing, so much of the plot just seems so implausible - two travel nurses decide to stay in a cottage on an island in a lake with no access apart from a tiny row boat? In what world would people who have to go to work daily choose this? And the mysterious owner of said cottage just happens to be their boss, how would they not know this? And then her largely absent mother just happens to show up after 2 years to that exact cottage? ON A YACHT? I mean it's just absurd.

I've seen other reviews mentioning that a lot of things seem to have been lifted from TikTok, but I actively avoid TikTok like the plague so I'm not aware of those, but I will say that there was a lot of repetitive things (the Toilet King?), brand names mentioned over and over, cringey moments, etc.

I also really didn't get on with Emma, I get that she's been through trauma and that has changed how she approaches relationships but her attitude was just so selfish, her expectation that Justin should be happy with casual sex and form no attachments, whereas Justin thought he was being selfish in wanting more from Emma but he was not! He was totally valid in feeling that, especially in all the things he had going on in his life.

I don't know if I'll return to this at some point, or I'll just enjoy the first 2 books as they are and forget this one.

I think I've consumed my annual quota of smut in this one book alone.

After really enjoying book 1, this was definitely a step down. I still enjoyed the characters and the world, but there was SO much smut and so little plot that it felt like an unnecessary filler book.

I will say I didn't expect the twist at the end, I had a feeling there was going to be a betrayal like that, but I didn't expect it to be that person.

I'll be continuing in the series, but I hope we get more actual plot and progress in the next book.

So short it barely needs a rating but it's a nice little addition to the Mistborn series, with a glimpse at Kelsier's training with Gemmell.

Is it necessary reading for the series? No.

Did I still enjoy being back in this world? Yes!

I had an urge to continue my Cosmere journey recently (likely due to the excitement amping up due to Wind and Truth being released) so this was next and then onto Elantris.

Ooh this was so good!

I had a few issues with the writing and pacing, there were some overly used phrases (did you know her eyes are celadon?!) which became grating and needed editing out but there was so much I really liked about this.

I thought this was going to be the usual generic fantasy romance and hit all the same plot point but it did not!

Thea was so refreshing - she didn't want to just go off and save the world by herself, she trained hard and worked together with her team in the battles. She had a good attitude and actually admitted needing help. Unheard of!

I also found Wilder a nice change from the usual love interest - it wasn't insta lust and he wasn't an arrogant prick like usual. He actually supported Thea and has his own issues to work on.

Cal and Kip are great as the friend group, I was on edge for them during the initiation trial but I'm so glad they all made it through together. I'm waiting for the revenge on Seb, I hope it's brutal.

The ending was another big win for me and I'm diving straight into book 2!

DNF @ 32%

I loved The Push but I really didn't get on with this one.

I expected a tense, twisty domestic thriller but instead got a bland story about dysfunctional families and spouses cheating on each other. It was weirdly sexual to the point of being vulgar and distasteful. The whole scene with someone sneaking into her neighbours house and smelling her vibrator 🤢 was the final straw, I tried to look past it but couldn't do it.

For this apparently being "the worst Cosmere" novel, I was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Granted I've only read Mistborn Era 1 so far but I'm looking forward to getting to the later books if this is the level of his debut novel.

At first I really only wanted to read Raoden and Sarene's POVS, as Hrathen's didn't do much for me, but when everything came together later on you really see why his POV was so important from the start.

This is very much focused on politics and religion, with the magic system taking a back seat, so for that reason it's not an instant 5 stars, as I would have liked more on the magic. It was unique and interesting, just as the Mistborn magic system is, and I found the sections in Elantris and when they were discovering more about the magic were so good.

All in all, I really liked a lot about this and look forward to continuing my Cosmere journey.

I think I can agree with most other reviews with the following summary:

1 - I'm glad this is EVENTUALLY over.

2 - After how long this has been dragged out, the ending was not as satisfying as it should have been.

3 - Lionel's death was massively underwhelming.

4 - Book 8 should just basically not exist.

5 - The books and series overall is just too long (and again dragged out unnecessarily).

6 - I'm really disappointed how much the series went downhill after book 7.

I listened to books 8 and 9 on audio (I honestly don't think I would have finished them if I hadn't) and I have to say how amazing the narrators (Bridget and Jake Bordeaux) are. To have a different voice for all of the many POVs in these books was amazing, although Geraldine's was a bit much at times.

It's clear this is incredibly well researched, and a lot of this was interesting, but it was SO detailed (about the fair and its construction) it became dry and tedious by the end.

There was far less about Holmes, which was the more interesting side of the book, but I imagine there is less known factually about him and his deeds.

I was a bit confused about why these 2 threads were even in the same book, there's no link between Holmes' killings and the World Fair apart from being in the same city at the same time.

From the amount of good things I've heard about this I expected more, but it was overly long and a bit dry for my liking.