Brittanie

The book started out promising though I felt the writing was a bit stilted, like it was written by a non-English speaker or a translation. It read like an old folk tale which I assume was the intention. I started drifting half way through, though. I just didn't care about any of the characters and reading about her daily life was monotonous and boring. The battle also seemed forced, like the writer had to prove one more time that the protagonist was a Strong Female Character but I was rooting for the weird mist demon things if only to finally end the book.

I started to like this book the farther I got into it but initially it was a lot of eye rolling. The constant mentions of IPA and brand name beers plus just both the characters being initially deeply annoying - but I pushed through and ended up being charmed by their relationship build-up. However, as a whole, I don't find this realistic at all. They're just not two people that would last very long and the author relied on tropes to the point where it's just really not a realistic story. I usually don't have a problem with that (I mean, it's fiction) but when it's set in a very real world situation including actual brand names and locations it becomes a problem for me to get past. The author should have made up a beer brand and maybe didn't rely so much on a Cincinnati location when it could have been in Anywhere, USA.

This had a few interesting facts and I did like that it was presented almost like a list or Q&A, instead of having to read chapters of jumbled information. However, it's really not for true crime aficionados as a lot of this was information I already knew. If you're just getting into true crime and want a bunch of facts laid out in an easy-to-read format, this would be a decent place to start.
However, like other reviewers mentioned, there are quite a lot of mistakes in this for being an internationally published work. The editors could have done a much better job finding these egregious mistakes that takes credibility away from a non-fiction work.

This was a different take on ghosts but it was a little heavy on the cheese and very light on any kind of realism. It reads very episodic so there's a lot of time missing between chapters and therefore a lot of information is also missing about the rules of this “ghost” and the paranormal in this world. Somehow, Adam is powerful enough to cook and clean and basically exist like a living person that can disappear at will. And, because Danny can't afford to move and is too stubborn anyway, they're forced to interact every day, so Danny falls in love with him. It's all very Stockholm Syndrome.
Halfway through the book, Danny uses some heavy black magic (using a tome bought on eBay of course) to bring Adam back from the “in between” and into a completely living person - supposedly all with the power of love and some Latin. While I understand this is paranormal fiction and therefore the author can do whatever they want, it just seems a little too implausible. I feel like maybe they got this conjuring idea from Beetlejuice but there ultimately were no stakes like in that movie, except that Adam apparently only gets to live for a single year. Don't worry, all they have to do is re-do the ritual with some blood every year for the rest of their lives. No big deal, right?
I initially felt like I really liked the story because it was unique and the love story is very sweet, especially the last chapter about the afterlife, but in hindsight I just have too many questions and it goes down in rating the more I think about it. This is definitely for people that care more about a sappy romance rather than the paranormal aspects or any kind of discernable plot.

This felt like a few hundred pages and took me a while to get through because it's pretty dense.
The reader is thrown into a world that's basically Lord of the Rings but maybe a few hundred years into the future so society is closer to Tudor England - but there's still orcs and elves and magic. There's also gods or demi-gods that are born men but somehow level-up when people start worshipping them.
I can't decide if I'm impressed all of this was crammed into a novella or if I'm just confused as to what this world actually entails and what happened in the plot. I did enjoy the characters and my curiosity is piqued enough to read more from the author though, so that's probably a win.

I really enjoyed this collection of creepy short stories. They all have some sort of otherworldly creature or “monster” but feels more in the world of faerie than any kind of supernatural being. No ghosts or vampires here but instead creatures based on regional folklore. While I did have issues with the first book [b:Lesser Known Monsters 55374322 Lesser Known Monsters Rory Michaelson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1600510978l/55374322.SY75.jpg 86362822], this shows that Michaelson does have strong storytelling skills as well as a grasp on the world they've created for this series of books. A few of these stories are a little too short as we don't get any real development other then showing off the monsters but as a collection, it's strong. The main story that's dispersed among the rest of the one-shots is very heartwarming as well, rather than being a creepy horror story, and I thought that was a good call for the editor and author so it's not just a cute story and then a bunch of scary ones after or before.It definitely made me look forward to the next book in the series than I was before reading this.

This short book pulled quite the punch emotionally. It's very lyrical and jumps around in time but you're following the lives of two high school boys trying to figure out their lives, identities, and each other. Some parts are a little hard to follow and you want to yell at Johnny or Connor or both more than a few times but that shows how well Sydney draws in the reader with their writing.
It takes place in the 1980s in a small town so the open-mindedness of some of their friends seems a little unrealistic but as I've never had to come out, I couldn't say. Johnny's home life is heartbreaking though we don't really see the whole breadth of it here, but it definitely affects his choices and therefore affects Connor as well. This is an enemies-to-lovers story but is infinitely more complicated and there isn't really a happy ending, or one at all. It's like a series of glimpses into these boys' lives.

I enjoy these two characters but this is somewhat dissatisfying because there hasn't been anymore books for this series but there's still a lot of questions. I also definitely recommend reading the two books back to back because, after reading quite a few historical romances in-between, it took me a while to remember who everyone was. There are a LOT of characters in this book and not enough pages to really get a sense of who everyone is enough to tell them apart. This story is a little more well-rounded sexually in that there are all sorts of couples represented but that also means not enough time is spent with the main characters. It's hard not to think of this more as a novella for fans rather than a second book in a series.

Not sure if it's because the characters are already well known to one another so no time is wasted on the build up, or if it's Mrs. Chamber's having improved in her craft, but I felt this book was a lot better written with better characters than the three previous novels in the series, which focus on an entirely different couple. While Murdo and David are enjoyable to read about in their daily doings and will have a special place in my heart, Iain and James are really a couple you want to root for and read more about. It's too bad the author didn't make this its own series and explore their side of the world a bit more, and it feels a bit of a copout to be bundled in with the rest of the Enlightenment series. Hopefully we'll see more of them in future works.

I felt this book wasn't as planned out as the previous books in the series. I didn't really care about Henry that much and thought that Kit reconciled way too easily, even if he did love Henry 20 years ago. Like Henry himself says, people change an awful lot in 20 years and I think that Kit might have been willing to forgive Henry, but to jump into a relationship the same day they're reunited without hesitation is a bit of a stretch even in fiction. I love Chambers' writing though and was entertained by the book, so that's as much as I can expect. I would like less one-offs in this series and get maybe a longer story or another multi-book couple like the series started with.
Also note that the cover might be a bit misleading since it's of a very young man but the couple here are both in their 40s.

This is a murder mystery taking place in small town Vermont in the middle of winter. Declan, a well-known but declining writer running from NYC to try to get his next best seller out, is a bit of a snob. He spent his summers with his family at this cabin but now that both his parents have passed, the cabin is left to him and his sister and is Declan's last place to go with his money and fame running low.
Declan wasn't a character I really cared for and couldn't relate with. The central relationship was also a bit of an insta-romance with a small town cop-not-cop (with the writer jumping on recent anti-police rhetoric that hardly felt realistic for a small Vermont town). I found myself much more interested in solving the murder and felt Declan's self-insert into the investigation and the town's business was more annoying than helpful. I think Adler was going for a “Castle” (the TV show) type set-up but it fell flat.
There's also no more than a few stolen kisses in the entire book which made Declan's constant knobslobbering frustrating in the end.
This book might be interesting to readers just dipping their toe into M/M and interested in murder mystery plots, but those looking for a more intense experience will be disappointed.

I enjoyed this one even more than the previous two. Jae and Junichi are much more realistic characters with a more organic relationship. While I do like Haru and Nino a lot, Haru's weird hang-ups got a bit repetitive. I think this is down to the fact that Jun is not the leader of anything so there was only a little bit of the weird hierarchy that this series has established in Japanese Vampires. The biology in this book is interesting but not something you can really think too much about. Jae's “repressed aura” or whatever doesn't make a lick of sense especially how he's also purebred - but with a repressed vampire maternal lineage and a very distance paternal lineage. It's just not something you can really explain, we'll just have to take Nikole's word for it. It's her world, anyway.

I also found it was interesting that Nikole completely skipped over Cellina and Giovani's story besides what was in the last (2nd) book. At the end of that book, I was sure they were going to be the main couple in the next book. I'm glad because I thought it would have been missing the mark to shift to a MF couple after two books of MM.

Overall, a nice enjoyable read with two very likeable characters. Nikole has a refreshing take on MM relationships where these characters actually try to communicate openly, not be super repressed like you see in too many other MMs (especially historical), without it coming across as sappy or ridiculous.

DNF at 30%. The Bright Sessions series is so character driven that if you don't like the character, it's impossible to get through the narrative. This is definitely my own bias at play but Rose was hard to relate to and when reading her journal entries/blogs here, I just didn't care what would happen to her. I didn't like her in the podcast either because she's written like some whimsical fae girl but makes really dumb decisions so it comes off more naive and childish.
Damien is by far the most interesting character in this world (which is saying something, see my review of TBS #2) and putting him in the book was maybe a mistake because it highlights how boring and underdeveloped the other characters are.

DNF at 80 pages. It was very dialogue-heavy because it's from the POV of the main character but then he has four other voices ‘living' inside him. Even the chapters from the girl's POV was mostly dialogue. I usually don't have a problem with that but when the voices are unrealistic and hard to distinguish, it becomes a very confusing read. The concept is interesting but I just think the author didn't have the skill to pull it off successfully.

Dropped at 25%. I am so disappointed because this sounds like it's right up my alley. Unfortunately, the writing just doesn't flow well. Odd sentence structure and word choice made me have to reread entire paragraphs or just confused me. I'm not sure if this is more accurate language for the time period the story takes place or if Lawrence's writing is just not for me. I've read plenty of 1700s/Georgian period novels and while I can admit the dialogue is not always historically accurate, I've never had this kind of issue and it's just too annoying to wade through.

This was a nice bow to tie up the series with. The two main characters are definitely some of my fave and the pulp murder mystery plots were really well executed.
While it's a bit bittersweet the series ended here, it would have probably gotten a little repetitive. This final book, while just as good as the first two, was kind of a rehash of the arc over the previous books in that Zodiac, the criminal enterprise Kim has been fighting against, was disbanded after the death of their leader but the bureau had yet to capture them all and surprise! they're back to cause more mayhem. The series could have definitely ended in two books but since I like the author and these characters so much I'm glad it didn't.
There isn't much more to say. KJ Charles is one of the best writers in the MM historical genre and I can't wait to see what's next.

DNF @ 40%.
The writing was ok but Liam was just such an angry, arrogant character. Using a very strict and abusive dad and newfound PTSD as an excuse didn't make me care any more. At the point I started to want to stop reading, Liam did get a little better, trying to help his old (ex?) friend Finch, but I was just kind of bored and fed up. I'm just not the right audience.

This is becoming a favourite series. I really enjoyed Benjamin and August's story and it didn't suffer from sequel syndrome. They're both such likeable characters in a world of likeable characters. Captain Benjamin Frakes has a huge gap in his personality - all gruff and scowles but just wants to be cherished - while August is another loveable rake with a heart of gold. Greene has a great writing style that kept me engaged throughout the entire story. I think I might have liked this one even more than the first book because the angst/trauma wasn't so extreme (Edward's childhood) so it was more relatable and more of a slow burn instead of just sad.
My first niggle is the cover image isn't anywhere close to the character descriptions and August wasn't actually a spy and Benjamin is retired so... just don't let the cover and title influence you.
My second is that while the sex scenes are otherwise well written and well timed, it is dramatically inaccurate. If you're going to put emphasis on August's virginity, maybe make his first penetrative sex a little more realistic. A few saliva-covered finger pokes does not an enjoyable time make for even the experienced, much less someone who seemingly hasn't ever touched themselves there. It took me a bit out of the story with my giant cringe and wince.

This was a real bummer of a book but is a good take on grief as well as gender issues with high school age kids. While I didn't have to deal with any of these issues personally, Deaver portrays these things in a really believable way that it was easy to relate to the characters. As with a lot of high school-aged characters I read, as I get older, these characters aren't always easy to like. Liam/Lee, the main protagonist, is very self-absorbed and confused about who they are and want to be, while having the idea that they already know everything they need to. Their friends are also the same. I liked Marcus the best and really felt for him, and Deaver did a good job making him believable as a few years older than Liam. He's going through a lot of the same things as Liam but on an entirely different level, and Liam isn't the most empathetic character.
Overall, a definite recommend to younger readers going through a loss while coming to terms with who they are but I'm definitely not the intended audience.

Bauer has been pretty hit or miss with me but all her books are wildly different from one another so that's to be expected. Mostly this reads a lot like a CW show in that the two mains are unrealistically attractive opposites who went from friends to lovers just because the nerdy one hit puberty, and all the other characters are kind of tropes or vaguely written. However I was charmed by both Emory and Connor and their relationship seems more realistic than most MM. They first bonded over horror movies and filmmaking but they only really spend a few weeks every year together in their families' adjacent beach vacation houses so they don't see each other grow up in between. Apparently, this year, Emory hit puberty hard and changed from social outcast to the hot mystery guy and Connor wants to dive in dick first.
While a lot of sex is alluded to or mentioned, nothing really happens “on screen”. Bauer also didn't make it the focus which made the actual horror plot more prominent which was good. There are a lot of plot points that need to be cleared up and I found the climax a little anticlimactic and ridiculous but you can't expect much more than that from someone that's not really a horror writer. Overall, this was a fun read but I'm not sure I'd read a sequel.

This was much better than the first for a couple of reasons, namely I find Ronan an infinitely more interesting character than the other 3 (living) leads. There was also a lot more action and less Blue being a typical YA girl even though she's so ~weird~ and has such a ~weird~ life. I also liked the larger role of Persephone and Maura.
Making the magic of dream control and real world manifestation more complicated by adding additional “Greywarens” (or at least allowing other regular Joes to have the same abilities without the control) seems unnecessarily complicated - the rules of the world in the Raven Cycle books are already pretty iffy and this is only book 2. I would like Stiefvater to give more explanation of these rules instead of just adding more and more elements that make things confusing.
The family drama of Mr. Grey's was also weird and went unexplained. If he could have just shot his brother so easily, why didn't he do so years ago? How can the encouragement of a near stranger (Maura) suddenly make him “brave” enough to finally do it, and then it's just so easy? If his brother was so cunning and sociopathic, he wouldn't have just followed in a car and put himself in a vulnerable position, even if he was grossly underestimating Grey. It was a silly subplot that added nothing to the book, though the Mr. Grey character himself was interesting.
In conclusion, Chapter 56 is the best chapter.

Obviously Steifvater knew that she had an interesting character in Cole St. Clair that she would write a book outside of the original trilogy centering around him. In this book, we get only Cole and Isabel's POV, both ending up in L.A. after the events of the Shiver series for different reasons. Isabel and her mother moved back to California to get away from Isabel's father, Cole goes for Isabel and to reignite his defunct music career (and fame).
While Cole is a fun character to read even at his lowest points, I have a huge problem with Isabel. It's good that Steifvater writes in a lot of vulnerable moments for her because otherwise Isabel would be completely unlikable. She is the definition of cold bitch and being a 17 year old with a privileged life, it's hard to have any sympathy for her or to relate to her in any way. She's a spoiled brat and treats everyone around her like she's completely above them in every aspect, even Cole who she keeps trying to convince herself she hasn't fallen in love with. How or why Cole keeps trying to get past that to have a relationship with her is beyond me as I would have given up on her much faster. They didn't have a sexual relationship until near the end of this book so you just want to yell at Cole to move on, there was literally nothing to be gained. Isabel is a character that needs professional help but not in a way you can feel sympathy for, you just want her to seek help to keep her from hurting literally everyone around her.
I still gave this book 5 stars because besides the problems with characterisation, I loved the story and the arc of the book. It was a book I didn't want to put down and that's all you can really ask for.

I didn't quite enjoy this one as much as the first. Without the world and relationship building, I just didn't care quite so much about these characters.
The incorporation of a MF relationship and sex, as well as a lot of talk between Nino and Haru about having children, uninterested me. The villain and his island could have also been explored a lot more in the text instead of spending so much time building Cellina and Giovanni's relationship. That should have been done in their own book, targeted towards people who are more interested in MF. Granted this book is marked as “queer” rather than MM but the first book was only MM so I think the carryover of those readers to here is going to be your target audience.
I enjoy the world that Nikole has written but I do have some issues with her writing - the pacing is very off but also there are a lot of issues in the dialogue. You have these 100+ year old vampires that speak multiple languages but it seems their grasp on English is tenuous; they speak very formally like a textbook (like saying “the male” to refer to someone when they're just talking amongst themselves) so a lot of the dialogue is a bit odd and didn't flow in a realistic way. No friends speak to each other like that in any language. It's just all very stiff and uncomfortable - it takes you out of the book.
Overall, I do really enjoy Haru and Nino's story and world but I don't have high hopes for the next installment.

My main issue with this book is that the plot focuses too much on what's going on around these characters instead of actually developing their relationship. I understand that they first come together as a means to an end, as would have been common in an era when “buggery” was a serious crime, but they basically fall in love dick first and it doesn't make sense the lengths they go to to be together when there isn't much else there. Pages of William trying to figure out how to transport money or picking out a coat for his employer, or Edwin dealing with William's brother and also doing service things for his employer... it just got a bit boring. I know what a valet does, that's not what I'm here for. If you really enjoy that ins and outs of daily life and a really slow burn romance, you'll be less disappointed, but I just found it a bit to much.

Charles is a master of the regency MM romance and they've done it again with this one. I absolutely adored all the characters and, while the premise itself isn't that unique in the genre, it was a really fun read that I didn't want to put down but also didn't want to finish. Robin is such a loveable character even while his intentions are less than savory.