Sass

Dystopian sci-fi plot at its finest! 4,5 holy-shit-I-didn't-expect-to-like-this-book-so-much stars for this wonderful piece of work

Okay, first of all I love the references the book kind of starts with combined with what we know from the synopsis. A quote from Hitler at the beginning (and one from Eisenhower. The monsters they're fighting against have pupils shaped like an S. Our protagonists are American and Russian. Well done Lori A. Witt you had my full attention from that moment onward.

I got this ebook for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


We have two main protagonists in the Defending Epsilon series, Kyle West an American fighter pilot living in London with his family and Andrei Dezhnyov (phew, so glad I learned a bit russian in school so reading his last name isn't difficult) an Elite Squadron Gunner stationed on Epsilon, an outpost close to the enemies home planet where only the best of the Fleet go but never return from.

Kyle and his gunner Emily are time and time again invited to join the Elite Squadron but Kyle doesn't want to leave his family behind to go somewhere he very likely will never see them again. This changes when an attack takes everything from him. Soon after the fighter pilot and his gunner are on their way to Epsilon light years away from their planet.

The pair is chosen for Commander Andrei's Squadron. Kyle and Andrei grow gradually closer, though Kyle feels guilty for being attracted to another man so soon after his lovers death.

Life seems to be going on as normal. Their superior is an idiot. Beer is good after a mission and sex is even better. Too many people die and there aren't enough Elite Squad fighter pilots or gunners to replace them. The usual.
That is until they discover something that makes them doubt everything they considered as true and right up to this very point.

Phew, I'm so glad I got this ebook from Negalley ‘cause normally I'm not so much into science-fiction novels and the synopsis didn't make me think I want to read it all that much. It was a bit misleading and made me think that this would be just another book among many. Not bad but not good either. Nothing to remember after being through with it. Boy was my assumption wrong.

So, I won't spoiler anything, but I advice you still not skip the next paragraph if you haven't read the book ‘cause it might give something away for when you read the book and have the same train of thought I had.

There were many subtle and not so subtle hints to give you a bad feeling about where this was going which I really liked because still I was like ‘nope, this ain't gonna go in the direction I thought of for a moment there that would just be horrible'.



When I reached the end of the book I could only think ‘I demand more pages!' and I'm really glad that this appears to be a series. You could end the book at that point. It would leave a few questions more open then I like and cripple the probable potential the plot piled up but it would fit the characters. Neither their relationships nor their character are normal, so an unconventional ending would suit them just fine but I won't complain about a sequel. Or maybe I should rather say I'm impatiently waiting for it.

Another thing I'm hoping to get in the next book besides some answers are more scenes between Kyle and Andrei. They have good chemistry between them but there weren't enough scenes in this book. Or at least not enough to make their not-really-romantic-relationship-but-rather-friendship-with-benefits palpable enough for me to be on a par with the rest of the story. This doesn't mean that I find the characterisation lacking though! The fact that the they are though but can still crack and break apart is something I really appreciate. Everyone has a breaking point even if it's someone from an Elite Squadron.

Before I'll start ranting about this book any more than I already did I'll just tell you to go and read it if you like dystopian books, cruel but good plots, well done characters, sci-fi (even if you don't this isn't heavy sci-fi), strong women or the fact that you won't even notice that it has 370 pages.


Come visits my blog for more reviews or just a nice cup of tea

★★/☆☆☆ 2 Stars for this almost step-by-step copy of the new Disney movie.

First of all, a big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free digital copy to read and give a honest review.

Just a small warning if you don't know the fairytale of haven't watched the movie, my review will contain some minor spoilers! Also, if you read my review for Belle's Tale, this will be almost the same review.

I was very excited when I saw this manga on Netgalley and already looked forward to writing a pretty review. The cover is beautiful and I really like the story and the new Disney movie. Alas, my excitement waned quite a bit when I started reading Beast's Tale. The art looked half-hearted on a lot of pages, some were very nicely done with pretty backgrounds but a lot of pages only had the characters in them, floathing in nothingness and it felt very lifeless.

Except for some scenes it mostly felt like scenes directly taken from the movie, sans background, with little insight into the Beast's thoughts which was what the manga promised. Belle's thoughts and feelings were flat and made her appear even more lifeless than the missing background did. In fairytales the background is important to me, because it conveys the feeling of the world being magical with the right setting but let's move on from complaining about the white backgrounds.

What bothered me about Beast's Tale was that I war really excited to get a few new scenes with insight into how he feels about all of this. Well, most of the scenes, sans a few of his past when he was still a prince, were directly taken from Belle's Tale. Had I bought it I would've felt quite cheated.

All in all I didn't really enjoy reading it, mostly because I missed the character depth, the Beast's innermost thoughts, but the few times the reader is given one of the Beast's thoughts they feel flat. The other thing that really bothered me, as anyone who read my review knows, were the multiple blank backgrounds.

Six: “I'm impenetrable”
Holden: “...that's cool, I'm a bottom anyway”
Six: “That's not what I meant but that's good as well.”

Note: this is not how the story goes

You can find this review on my blog bookboners as well

★★★★☆ 3,5 stars for this story of accepting hurtful realities and finding things you didn't know you wanted

I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story is the second installment in The Community series, so if you haven't read Insight be warned, here be SPOILERS. Perhaps, I tried to keep it relatively spoiler free.



Oversight continues around the point where Insight leaves us but this time we get the story from Holden Payne's point of view. He wasn't exactly one of my favourites from book one, so I wasn't all that excited for his story. And to be honest his character annoyed the shit out of me from time to time.

After the watchdog Holden's douchebag father send is now out of the picture he sends someone new to the club to keep an eye on Holden.

Sixtus. An impenetrable (yes, you got it, he won't be penetrated, at least not physically) who is immune to psychic powers. Holden is still shaken up by all the things that happened in the last couple months and when Holden's father seems to want to blame the whole incident on him and one of Holden's friend's disappears he is forced to confront a reality he isn't quite ready to accept.

The overall story was enjoyable, but good lord Holden can be so annoying for a 30-year-old person who has at least had some life experience! Boy, I can understand that you don't want to see the thing you grew up in as evil or bad but there comes a point where the denial is so thick it must be suffocating you. It wouldn't be that bad if Holden was a real fanatic, I would have been frustrated but it would have been more understandable. Holden admitted that he knows there are some bad parts in the Community. That makes his apparent inability to see reason and question things so much more frustrating. Especially since he knows that The Farm isn't all sunshine and roses.

Well, enough about that, let's get to Six and Holden. Their interactions were nice and I really liked Six. Their relationship made more sense when you got to know some of the back story as well. Six's point of view would have been fascinating. To witness his changing demeanor towards Holden, but oh well. The third book is gonna be about Chase, so that's good enough for me.

All in all a satisfying continuation of The Community series and I'm excited to see how Sightless is gonna continue with imprisoned Chase, the ex-Comm and everything else.

One of my favourite webnovels of all time. I don't know how to sum up my feelings for it. Even if from a readers perspective it's frustrating how little we know about the MC bc we basically never hear his thoughts and instead only the thoughts of the other characters. It adds to the charm bc just like the other characters you have no idea what the MC is going to do and you look forward to finding out what new plot twist is going to happen.
To be honest, at the beginning I didn't expect to like it bc a book about people playing onlin video games? Doesn't sound like my cup of tea. But I'm so glad I decided to give it a try! I've become a fan of a new genre and I always love when that happens. Bless the author for this story and giving me the opportunity to experience their writing!

All the characters are so fun to read, I love them. One of the rare cases where I want side chapters about them. Good mix of romance and e-sports competition. The story always makes me laugh because the comedy is on point.
Description of strategy and games is well-done.
Moral of the story: don't forget that sunspots are still fans, no matter how black of a fan they are.

3,5 five stars filled with dubious choices

Not gonna lie, i was pretty excited about this book since i loved Becoming the Demon Queen a lot.

pro:
- the scourge that they try to find a cure for and eradicate is interesting, wished we actually got more of the book investigating and exploring it instead of it basically becoming a backdrop
- the cliffhanger was quite good and definitely made me grab book two straight away

con:
- first time they slept together our dear heroine basically traps her hot love interest with a heart bond he knew nothing about after she waxed on about how she can't sleep with anyone for that exact reason
- not a big fan of making it seem like losing your virginity is like popping a piece of cling film but that's neither here nor there.
-our main couple feels a bit like bickering children, when will we get characters that actually act their age and talk with each other properly. communication is hot

4,5 Stars because I was so excited to get a chubby FL with glasses and then the author comes along and makes her drop dead gorgeous and her friends tell her “i always told you that you are beautiful, see?” and that nearly made me drop it at the start.
Love the characters, or should I say Jesse, he really makes me love and I need more characters like him

3,5 stars that slowly fizzle out

pro:
- as in book one the affliction that befalls the vampires continues to intrigue me and as with book one i wished it would have been explored more because it was my favourite part about the book
- sexy times were fun to read

con:
- the back and forth between our couple continues to frustrate with my tipping point probably being Bart finally coming around only to take ten steps back after being overcome with the affliction. while i can certainly can understand his reasoning, it was just incredibly frustrating to read because
- the heart bon, words can't describe how much it frustrates me. the word gets thrown around so much and it really takes away from the romance for me only to then find out that it apparently never existed in the first place but the author doesn't even try to explain why or how their connection was created. honestly felt like a lazy plot twist for me

5 stars that are as smitten with the story as the in-laws are with our heroin

This is like a five star bingo

- portrayal of various characters trauma and psychological issues is done with great care
- great art
- artist manages to express many emotions with small details
- fashion design is top tier
- slow paced to show the reader the slow change of the characters
- found family being much more powerful than blood relatives that treat you badly
- side characters that the readers care about

2 stars because although most of the book was almost five stars for me, one of the last chapters was so revolting that I wanted to drop the whole series

This series is why I don't understand authors not using trigger warnings. Would save them from a few bad reviews and readers from getting slapped in the face with triggers they didn't want.
A page with trigger warnings doesn't have to spoil the story, readers dont have to look at it if they don't care. But if there are certain things that are present in the book, then it would be a nice courtesy to give a warning.
After reading it I was left feeling physically sick and unable to sleep properly and I certainly would not have picked up the book if I had seen the trigger.
Yes, the scene is brief but certainly packs enough punch that it burned itself into my brain and it's all I can think about when I see the book.

If you need more details on the screen there's a one star review describing it briefly.

*Edit: it seems like the author put warnings on the Amazon page to check her website for a list with triggers

3.5 horny stars with some plot that is darker than I expected

If you liked this you should definitely check out the Dark River Days series

Was ready to drop this like a hot potato after a particular scene but the author making it into a moral dilemma was the saving grace

Seth is best boy and I adore the interactions between him and Calista but also the dynamic between him and Draven.

3 stars for a good alice in wonderland retelling

con:
- the story could've done with some editing, the time skip chapters were dragging on way too long
- love me a good miscommunication trope but i gotta agree with another review here that says Terek's lack of communication seems lazy
- was really rooting for Ace to get a better life but why do author's always have to make FLs dumb as bread so they can further the plot along? i fondly like to call it stock exchange iq because it really be going up and down
- Terek's character starts to feel about as appealing as a brickwall (a sexy wall, but a wall nontheless) and the only saving grace is getting his pov every now and then

2 stars for a series that gave me the methapor of an abusive relationship, but both stars are for the potential that the story setting had and wasted

This series was like a metaphor of an abusive relationship for me. The beginning half gave me a great time and i was ready to fall head over heals for this series. But then it suddenly took a turn, characters changed their personality so suddenly it left me reeling.
But I was having such a good time! Maybe it will get better? No, I'm sure it must get better! I know how much i liked the ml's during the first half!

And so the spiral begins.

It gets a bit better, letting you hope. And then it gets worse again, maybe worse than it was. But the author shows you that it can get better and so you hope again. You hope and you wait...And then it does get better! But only shortly, and then it spirals down down down once more.

At the end of book three I managed to break myself out of the spiral and I was not happy with the time it took me.

The second star is for the great potential the story had. I really liked the world the author presented and having read Darkly Ever After right before this I was rather excited despite the mixed reviews.