Month: April 2021

Book Reviews

Post Blood and Honey Feels

Cayla
  1. Madame Labelle annoyed me to high heaven.
    I said what I said. I get that she is trying to protect her son, but he didn’t know that you were more than the owner of a brothel until five minutes ago, you cannot expect him to have some familial relationship in that time, and he had a relationship with Lou before you. Her constant need to try and undermine his relationship with Lou was exhausting.
  2. I need more about the Blood Witch Coven and the Loup Garou.
    Their history sounds interesting. I want to know more about Coco and her ties to the leadership of the Blood Witch Coven. She’s a princess, so I want to know about what her life is going to be like once La Voisin dies….if she ever dies because of the whole heart eating thing.

    As for the Loup Garou, their culture is probably super interesting. What are their laws like? Do they have some tie to the moon? Can they always shift? I need answers.
  3. Lou and Reid’s relationship. It pained my heart.
    They were just kind of on different wavelengths it felt like. They worked so well together in the first book, but in this book they were each doing their own thing and not really focusing on making progress in their relationship. I really just wanted them to communicate with each other!

    Madame Labelle did her part in trying to create doubt with Reid in regard to Lou. Like shouldn’t she want her son to be happy, shouldn’t she want to help Lou overcome her spiral? Lou had a tendency to martyr herself and once things started to go downhill at all, she sabotaged as much as she could and would say nasty things. Like I just want you guys to love eachother.
  4. Celie and Jean Luc!?!? What
    You loveeeeeeeeed Reid, but you hooked up with his ‘brother!?’ You also may have done so prior to Reid ending things? I cannot handle this. Jean Luc you’re supposed to have loved Reid with your whole being because he was basically your dang twin growing up, but you turned your back on him and slept with Celie because you were basically jealous of what Reid had. Ugh. Drama.

    And thennnnnnn. After Lou saves her she gets all up on her high horse that Lou stole Reid and when she sees Reid she tries to hug and curl up with him. Helloooooooo Jean Luc is in the room too!?
  5. My baby, Ansel.
    I am distraught. Literally distraught. I think in my commentary about Serpent and Dove I literally said I would die if anything happened to poor baby Ansel.

    That was so unnecessary!! He needed to be important, but not that important!

Anyways, I wish that Reid had explored his magic a little more. I am also interested to see how the twins’ magic works since it does not seem that they sacrifice anything for the magic to work, same with Reid. It just sort of happens. It also feels like they do not use patterns to work their magic.

This book didn’t quite succumb to the Second Book Syndrome curse, but it was almost there. It felt as though they kind of wandered around to see new places and people while Reid and Lou argued. I missed Coco and Beau’s comedic relief. Which, coming to that. The love triangle that was never necessary…..ugh. It was almost a freakin’ love square at one point because of Coco’s childhood love. bah.

Anyways, none of my annoyances will prevent me from reading Gods & Monsters, but for now, I’m onto From Blood and Ash.

See you after the next chapter, bookworms,

Cayla

Book Reviews

Thoughts on Serpent & Dove

Cayla
  1. I loved that this book was French inspired.
    I took French in high school and literally have never used it, so this book gave me a reason to use all that French knowledge. But really, the names, the words, the love of sweet bread/sticky buns, the architecture even was just *Chef’s kiss.* To start, knowing that it was French inspired, I could totally see in my mind’s eye the way the theater that Lou stayed in looked and the way the town looked from the rooftop of the theater.
  2. Lou and Reid were tense, passionate, and all consuming.
    It’s no secret that I love enemies to lovers and when you have an arranged marriage on top of that, I’ll just be here fanning myself. I loved Lou literally running into Reid and then slipping away, only to stumble upon him once more and being forced into marrying him. She pushes his buttons in all the right ways, and he helps her to open her mind up to seeing the world from new perspectives. Their slow roll from hatred to love was a tumble that I am here for.
  3. Reid was adorably naive, but he was a strong character.
    Reid was an orphan raised by the Archbishop and because of that his worldview was extremely narrow. I loved that Mahurin kept true to that and allowed Reid to be a little closed minded before he met Lou. She kept him true to his vow and ensured that he was a little awkward with romance and didn’t know much about the world outside being a Chass. Reid was a definite strong character. He stuck to his values even when he probably didn’t want to, like when Celie wanted him to leave his wife or use derogatory language toward her. The best part about it though was that this was in line for his character as a whole and not a result of a budding romance with Lou.
  4. The world was a little underdeveloped, but that is okay in this instance.
    I am usually a big stickler in the fantasy genre about having good world building and fleshing out details of the magic systems and the culture. In this particular case, I am glad that we didn’t spend pages upon pages on how that works because it has slowly come out with the plot, and I kind of feel like we are in Reid’s shoes learning about magic and witches with him. It also allowed for Mahurin to keep the pace of the book at a steady chug without having sudden stops in the plot to allow for details to be dumped on you.
  5. Ansel is a precious baby that must be protected at all costs.
    You should know by now that I am also a lover of side characters. I get attached to them and their stories and I need to know more about precious Ansel. He seems like such an interesting character because he was very gung ho about catching witches, but he was also very open to Lou after he discovered what she was and how he figured out what she was.

I’m anxiously awaiting the next book as well as panicking because what if it doesn’t live up to my expectations!

See you after the next chapter, bookworms,

Cayla

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Feelings After Finishing A Court of Silver Flames

Cayla
  1. I fall under the unpopular opinion.
    I don’t like Nesta. I think people are allowing her a little too much grace because of trauma. Okay, I can see that some of her actions are trauma responses, but despite the fact that she recognizes this also, she only apologizes twice in the entire book. For being a “strong character,” Nesta didn’t live up to that for me. I struggled to get through this book because Nesta acted like she was the only one who had trauma and lashed out against everyone and anyone.
  2. Cassian deserves better.
    I said what I said. Nesta treats him like dirt, and yet, here he is wanting his mate because of the whole chemical imbalance that causes. I also feel like SJM kind of left Cassian’s development behind in favor of his romance with Nesta that wasn’t really even a romance. Somewhere we lost his strong, badass warrior self and even his flirty comments kind of fell flat for me. I wish we saw more of his role as general since that was supposed to be a huge part of his life and less of him pandering to Nesta’s every whim. I honestly would have rather seen Cassian end with Nesta if they weren’t mates. Wholly because that would mean that he chose her, and it would show that above all of her faults and even how she treated him, he saw that she was a good person and wanted to foster that.
  3. Nesta’s friends
    Great, I’m glad that Nesta has friends. I actually really like Gwyn and Emerie, but I also don’t think they would really just allow Nesta to be as big of a bitch to them as she was throughout this book. I need more from them though. Sleepover? Cool, but give me some development from them. I liked their determination and drive during the Illyrian mountain killing spree though!
  4. Eris
    I am here for him. Give me more about what he is doing and what his motives are. What are his plans? I need mas. What was going through his head during the Mor situation. I need more about the Autumn Court in general. Which brings me to Lucien. This poor guy. He wants to impress and woo Elain so badly but she literally just stomps on his heart.
  5. Third person.
    I didn’t like the switch from first person to third. It made getting into this book very difficult. I really didn’t like that this switch came after three books of first person.

It was a 3/5 for me to be quite honest, I didn’t feel the romance between Nesta and Cassian. Their steamy scenes weren’t all that steamy in my eyes. Like Chapter 55 and Chill was not found in this book. Sorry not sorry. I love Az, I love Lucien, I love Feysand, I love Cassian, I love Mor. I did not love Amren’s changes, I did not love Nesta, I did not love Elain. I wanted more of Eris, I wanted more of Emerie, I wanted more of Gwyn, I even wanted more of Bryaxis. So. It’s a 3 out of 5 for me when the rest of these books have all been 5s.

See y’all after the next chapter,

Cayla

Book Reviews

Review: The Bridge Kingdom

Cayla

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟/5

Overall Feelings: I liked this book, but it wasn’t one I’d add to my pile of I would read over and over again. I will definitely read it again, but it isn’t going to be one that I automatically reach for. I also think some of this is because I’m not a fan of third person point of view.

Lara: So, Lara is an interesting character. She spends fifteen years of her life locked in a palace in the desert learning to be ruthless, a killer, a spy, and the perfect wife to bring Ithicana to its knees. She ‘poisons’ her sisters to grant her the ability to see her father’s plan through. Her father is atrocious, and I feel that she gave him a little bit too much trust and grace after everything that he did. I feel like after fifteen years of training to be an assassin and a spy, she should have done a little bit better of a job. At times, she seemed a little naive, immature, and out of character for what she is written to be.

Aren: I actually liked Aren. He seems like a good guy that cares about his people. His relationship with Jor is fun, and I like the interactions between him and the various soldiers. I like the way his head works, and I wish I got to see more of how he ruled Ithicana. We saw a good bit of Lara without Aren, but in his POVs there wasn’t enough done without Lara. I wanted to see more of him running through the bridge, doing his Kingly duties, and interacting with his soldiers. Low key though, he’s a little too forgiving. Like be angry! Your wife deceived you, was going to overthrow your country, and is a spy, but hey that’s okay. I love you.

Side characters: I thought Jor was a good mentor for Aren. I would like to see more of him. He seemed to be a good person with looking out for Aren and the country’s best interests. I’ve seen people complain about the “crass” language of the soldiers, but that is what makes their characters feel more realistic. Having been around those types in the real world, that is very much how they would speak. There’s a reason people refer to swearing as “like a sailor.” Ahnna…..I don’t know how to feel about her. She was fine, but also a little flat.

Romance: For being listed as “Romantic Fantasy,” I felt like this book lacked romance. There was definitely fantasy, but when the author said slow burn, she meant that there’s only a scrap of romance. They “love” eachother, but when she is doing her whole reveal about the spy life, why didn’t she reveal her sisters and what she did. She loves this man and has seen how he acts and that he is honest, so why does she believe her father over him when her father effectively abused her for 15 years?

I wish that their romance had more sexual tension and more build up to the scene where they did have sex. In addition, when they sneak back into her home country and Aren sees his old fling, I cringed so hard. This scene bothered me because Aren, for being a good guy, seemed like he was getting ready to have his way with her and would have cheated on Lara had it not been for Jor.

World Building: I have a good grasp on Ithicana, but the rest of the world fell a little flat to me. Even Lara’s homeland was a little flat. I thought using the bridge was a neat idea to move goods, but I really didn’t understand the need for secrecy?

I have book two in my cart to buy, but it won’t be on my next to read any time soon.

See you after the next chapter!
Cayla