chaptersofmads's reviews
825 reviews

“If moving across an ocean has taught me anything, it’s that sometimes things in life are messy, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it.”

Pretty conflicted feelings on this one.

The first chapter (the email exchanges) had me hooked. I was especially excited because You've Got Mail is one of my favorite romcoms and I though their banter was cute. If I cringed a few times, that was to be expected because I'm extremely picky when it comes to romance books.

However, after that first chapter... it all kind of fell apart?

Parts of it were super cute/heartwarming, but there were so many moments the plot just made absolutely no sense and their relationship itself made me uncomfortable. Partially because of how the secret identity plot was handled and partly because these characters needed to fix some things in their personal life, instead of looking for romance. (Which was at the core of their conflicts, but I felt like they never acknowledged they needed the help I thought they did - such as Lily needing friends. Or a single friend, honestly.)

Again! This wasn't bad and there were parts of it that I thought were really sweet, but I also think it just wasn't for me.

I'd still definitely recommend giving it a chance if it sounds interesting to you!

“What is faith if not an offering in return for love? What have you offered lately for others, that is not for yourself? Who do you trust, other than yourself?”

ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Hannah Kaner has written a finale that is magical, hopeful, devastating, and really satisfying.

There's something inherently magical about reaching the conclusion to a series and being brutally hit in the face with the emotional equivalent of a frying pan, as you're forced to confront that you cared a bit more for these characters than you'd initially realized.

Not that that's what happened here, or anything. (cue distant sobbing)

To be clear: I have enjoyed every book in this trilogy. I knew I cared about the characters to some degree, but even in my review for Sunbringer I stated that they were my biggest issue and that I struggled to connect with them. So imagine my surprise when I reached the last 25% of this book and felt myself begin to TEAR UP?

I always struggle to review conclusions without spoilers (especially when they're arcs) so I offer my emotions as the best review I can give. As someone that reads quite a bit, it feels worth noting every single time a book reaches my emotions and I suddenly want everyone to read it.

This is one of those books. I finished this book last night and started to cry again when I thought about a specific line today. (Who is this emotionally intelligent, vulnerable queen?)

On a technical note, I will say that I felt the pacing was off (especially for the first half of the book) and that the romantic tension was just not there for me? However, the first one rectified in the second half and the latter was such a small portion of the book that it didn't really have much bearing on my overall appreciation of the story.

Overall, please read this trilogy (and this book when it comes out.) It's got a beautifully nostalgic found-family fantasy feel, whilst being effortlessly inclusive and delving into themes of faith/faithlessness, healing, vulnerability, and the lure of power.

I love this book so much and I look forward to whatever Hannah Kaner writes from here.

There's a reason this cover is so ugly.

“Your land is not the one you take, it is the one you die for.”

In my opinion, your feelings on this finale are dependent on how you felt about book 3.

Did you love book 3? Then you'll probably think this is a very fulfilling, well-constructed final book.

If book 3 didn't work for you, you'll probably feel differently (as I did.)

While I do think this was an improvement from the last book, I still consider it to be a downgrade from the first two books. The repetition and overall stupidity of this novel was just... horrendous at times. There were so many decisions made that felt like the author came up with the dumbest thing they could do and chose that option.

And as Riven's self-proclaimed #1 hater, this book absolutely destroyed his character. I detest the man and even I can recognize that he deserved better than whatever this was.

At the same time, this was still compulsively readable and I did like how some things were handled, even if I think that story's actual conclusion left a lot to be desired. The series itself grapples with a lot of important topics through the lens of a really interesting character, bringing something new to the table while being reminiscent of other popular fae books.

Overall, I still recommend the series, I still think the first two books are good; I just wish this had been better.

“Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn't know if she would ever find out where it was or become part of it.”

I get it. I do. I understand what this book was meant to be and I understand what it has been for many people.

That being said, I still thought this was bad for what it was. (I'm clarifying this because I know some people critique this book for being exactly what it advertises itself to be and I want to be clear that I didn't go into this expecting it to be anything other than what it says it is.)

I think the characterization was poor. The writing style felt like a twelve-year old imitating C.S. Lewis' writing style, amazed by their own wit and intelligence (as they write a sentence that is... both redundant and contradictory, which I suppose is - to some degree - impressive.) That's not even talking about the lack of quotation marks (I know it was a creative decision to be immersive, I'm still allowed to think it was stupid.)

Being entirely honest, I never thought I would pick up this book but I recently started the show and I've been really intrigued in how things are handled. I'm only 6 episodes in right now so my opinions may change, but the show actually improved on a lot of the issues I had with the book and I'm hoping that carries on in the second half.

Overall, I know what this means to people and I'm so grateful that this book has made people feel so seen. I just didn't feel like it delivered what it should have.

Really bummed to be dnf-ing this one but I just can't do it anymore. There isn't a single aspect of this book I don't have a complaint about, aside from me just being incredibly bored. I read a few reviews and I think it's a good idea I stop now, instead of forcing myself to keep picking it up.

“My heart feels happy listening to her, like I could do it forever.”

Once again proving that I can appreciate YA contemporaries, so long as they have a sad element.

There was so much I loved about this book, how it handled Stevie's relationship with her parents and her own identity as well as the ways she tried to get back to herself. Her romance with Nora felt very believable and it was incredibly easy to root for them.

My only complaints are that it felt odd for Stevie to perceive herself as 15 and yet carry on as an 18 year old (when it came to romance and her future) and that it was a bit rushed at times (particular the end) but when a book is this short, that's to be expected.

I would recommend going into this with caution if you're a vegan (or anyone that feels queasy with discussions of animal death/meat). It alternated between discussing the benefits of staying away from meat and then having a cow you'd met be served for dinner.

Overall, I thought this was a really good YA contemporary and I'm glad I read it.

"Rise to your feet, Shin Lina. One last time."

ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Easily one of the best series finales I have ever read.

This is how you write a finale. Hell, this is how you write a trilogy.

Sophie Kim has created the kind of series that will stay with me for a long time. The character arcs, the depth, the growth, the foreshadowing from book 1? There isn't a single piece of this that I could find fault with, even if I tried.

I swear I felt every emotion while reading this book, which is odd for me. I've said this before, I love reading but I don't always have the emotional experience that other people seem to. Part of this is because I'm usually unsurprised by most intended twists.

This whole trilogy was an exception.

This may sound a bit melodramatic, but I really mean it when I say this is the kind of book that tears you apart and puts you back together again. In many ways, there were lines that felt like they were meant specifically for me - which is a magic of fantasy, to feel so personal even as the characters are fighting mythical beasts and literal gods.

When I thought I knew where the story was going, the actual events always left me surprised. Even in small story beats, patterns I recognized from other books, Sophie Kim turned them on their head in the most satisfying way.

If I haven't made it clear already, this was incredible and secured this trilogy's position as one of my favorite series.

If you love *actual* enemies-to-lovers, stories of grief and addiction and forgiveness, books that don't treat traumatic events as minor inconveniences, a morally grey main character, magic, gods, and prophecies please read this. You won't regret it.

It's so bittersweet to be reviewing the last book, but I'm excited to return to Sophie Kim's words whenever she writes them. 

ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

last read of the year completed!!

Unique and thought-provoking, This Ends in Embers solidifies the Divine Traitors duology's place as a refreshing presence in YA.

To prepare for writing this review, I went and reread my review for the first book and was pretty surprised to see that my feelings on both books were almost identical. I still really appreciated the world-building and the conversations on generational trauma and the costs of war.

During this book, we follow Faron and Elara as they are separated due to circumstance and the rising war. Because of this, the world and the politics got to be expanded. We learn more about the history of their world, the dragons, the gods, and how the general public views the sisters'.

However, for me personally, this particular installment fell quite flat.

I found much of the book to be redundant and over-dramatized, with powerful sentences being repeated so many times they began to lose their meaning. The sisters still both acted incredibly young, which was something I struggled with in book 1. This is YA, the characters are meant to be young. I know that. But when you have characters that have been stripped of their childhood and forced into these adult roles, it's hard to believe that they'd still be behaving this way.

This also fell into the unfortunate YA habit of feeling very... teachy? Sometimes, authors write YA characters as an adult writing teenagers (rather than putting themselves into the mind of the character), filled with all of the lessons they want to get across and the encouragement they want to give to young people. Which is beautiful and admirable! But it doesn't feel like these characters learning those lessons on their own, it feels like the author is telling me to get my confidence back and not to kill.

I also found this a bit confusing, but I'm not counting that against the book. I've been especially tired this year and I'm more than willing to admit that might have been user error. I would recommend rereading So Let Them Burn before jumping into this one, if you need a refresher.

Overall, I stand by the fact that this duology deserves all the hype and praise it's gotten (and more!) Kamilah Cole did something incredibly interesting with what could have been a very basic premise.

While this book didn't entirely work for me, I definitely recommend it to people that love YA fantasy (+ don't mind YA that reads incredibly young) and want to read something that doesn't feel like everything else. 

I'm tired and don't really feel like writing a review for this one, so to put it bluntly: this book lost an entire star after the 75% mark. I won't expand on what exactly caused this, but I will say that I'm not usually the type to lower my rating because I disagree with the author's creative choice.

That being said, the point of this event was to show we can choose happiness even amidst tragedy. However, since the entire point of the story and literally every other experience made this point, that event felt traumatic simply for the sake of being shocking. Maybe it was more realistic, but I think a magical Christmas story can handle a little unrealistic happiness?

I liked how this book handled grief and Eva finding her way back to herself. Even the way she handled the body-swapping was more reasonable than most stories with that plot and I appreciated it.

This still (even for a book about healing from grief) felt incredibly bleak.

I kind of regret reading this and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. (This isn't against Rachel Greenlaw as an author. I loved "The Woodsmoke Women's Book of Spells" and enjoy her writing even if I disliked this one.)