chaptersofmads's reviews
825 reviews

This was both a solid sequel and a bit of a letdown.

Book 1 was one of my most pleasant surprises this year, in terms of going into a book with very little expectations and leaving shocked by how much I enjoyed it. With a strong focus on Irish mythology, weaving together the historical and the fantastical, female rage and tenderness as strength, The Children of Gods and Fighting Men was exactly what I love in a story.

The Words of Kings and Prophets carried on with a lot of what I enjoyed about its predecessor, but seemed to lose some of the steam built up in book 1. The best term I can think of for this book is "meandering". With slow-paced, political based books, it's incredibly easy to feel lost in all of the small decisions that create the larger picture. I'm usually not someone who minds that; but for some reason, I kept finding my attention drifting from this book.

It wasn't just slow-paced or detailed, it was boring me.

I also struggled with the characters a bit more this time around? Something I loved about the first book was how complex and real the characters felt, which was something that was missing for me in this book. Particularly Gormflaith and Fódla, our two main characters, seemed like a collection of decisions rather than actual characters.

That being said, there was still a lot I really liked about this book (such as the increased focus on the magic and the discussions of Christianity overtaking paganism). The second half was definitely much stronger than the first and I did ultimately have a good time with this, I just think I was hoping for more.

Overall, I'll continue recommending this series to people that love Irish mythology and political intrigue and definitely read the next book; I just wish I would have enjoyed this one a bit more. 

Nothing wrong with this, I'm just not really enjoying it.

I think I need to stop trying YA romcoms because I (almost) never connect with them, especially when they want you to feel like the HS seniors are in their mid-twenties lol.

This sounded super cute (Christmas/Hannukah, second chance, Sapphic fake-dating; all a lovely mix!) and I hope more people pick it up and enjoy it, I can just tell it isn't for me. 

"To love was to live, and to live was to die."

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

Do you ever read a book and just instantly know how many people will love it?

That was my experience with Our Infinite Fates, a YA book with a uniquely executed concept and plenty of angst - filled with lines of poetic longing and pain, a look into the human experience and what love really means to each person. How it can transcend time, how it can cause euphoria and agony, and what it means to be alive.

The entire time I was reading this ARC, I could tell it was filled with so many things that will work for so many people - especially on BookTok. This checks so many boxes and tropes that I think plenty of readers will adore it.

Unfortunately for me, it felt kind of like a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode had a baby with a John Green novel. I could carry that comparison on, but I think it adequately describes all of my opinions on this book.

I will say: if you're someone that's not a fan of certain popular books (like Powerless by Lauren Roberts) or you're struggling with YA feeling a bit predictable or immature at the moment, I'd probably recommend skipping this one.

Overall, I wholeheartedly recommend this book - even though it was 100% not for me. As I said, it checks so many reader boxes, such as: beautifully illustrated queer love, enemies and lovers, Taylor Swift references (not excessive, if that bothers you), sibling bonds, and the kind of poetry that would have slayed on Pinterest a decade ago. 

“I am no longer your creation, I think, words knitted in my chest.”

I've decided not to rate this because I... don't think it necessarily earned a one star but I also can't give it a higher rating, because I thought it was bad.

Not only was there a bunch of weird stuff with the "plot-twist" and flat plotting/characterization/pacing, there were also a few things that just felt... hm. I can't exactly think of how to word it.

Minor spoilers: Sally visits the human world and spends several pages gawking over Queen Elizabeth II and talking about how amazing and elegant and loving she is. There's also an incredibly uncomfortable scene where she goes to St. Patrick's Day world and has an encounter with a leprechaun that would have been too stereotypical for an early 2000s DCOM.

These things paired together felt pretty gross, in my opinion.

Basically! I did not like this! Not one bit! And I don't think most fans of the movie would either, but the decently high average rating on this seems to disagree with me so perhaps I am wrong.

Either way, I'm grateful this was such a short book or I would definitely have dnf'd. 

Oh, this was so cozy!

The art has been fantastic in each installment of this series but the autumnal/crossing over into wintry vibes of this one really spoke to me.

A perfect read for this time of year. 

“She walks with grace upon the clouds, and the stars know her by name.”

Within the past year, Rebecca Ross has become one of my favorite authors. I loved the Letters of Enchantment duology and adored the Elements of Cadence duology. After loving both of those so much, I decided to revisit this book - which I had originally dnf'd in 2019.

And my final thoughts are that I probably could have left it dnf'd and my life wouldn't have changed.

This is exactly what I thought it was when I started it a few years ago. Not only is it incredibly predictable and lacking any/all sense of mystery/magic, it also features one of the worst romances I have had the displeasure of encountering lately (which seems dramatic, because I haven't enjoyed most romances lately.)

The man is at least 8 years older than our 17 year old protagonist, which is already pretty funky, but! He has also known her since she was 10 and has been her teacher (referred to as master in this book) since she was 14. It is known that he has favored/loved her for the majority of this time. This is never questioned/condemned and every time I tried to forget their age gap, it was brought up. Again.

(I understand this book was inspired by history, but this was also a YA fantasy that did not need to pull on the historical accuracy of icky power dynamics in relationships.)

Beyond that, most of the book felt incredibly convenient or just simply stupid. I don't understand how any of this actually worked out in their favor, since they were all dumb as rocks. The villains - one dimensional and glorious as they were - were also incredibly stupid, gullible, and walking stereotypes so perhaps that's all the explanation required.

There are a lot of random things I could complain about with this book (such as the fact an evil character is conveniently killed by a dog or that the MC just so happens to find a secret passageway in her new prison/room) but this is already long enough.

I want to be clear: I did not hate this book. There are far worse books and I could still see Rebecca Ross' writing I love so much within the pages, particularly in the atmosphere and world-building. Unfortunately, these aspects were overshadowed by all of the other things I hated.

Overall, while this was a quick and easy read, I would not recommend it and I (most likely) will not be carrying on with the series. 

“It's always the books you don't have that call to you, you know that. Not the ones on your shelf. They can wait.”

A very brief review for what felt like a very long book.

This was... not for me, but I think the author was pretty successful in writing the kind of story that he set out to write. I applaud him for that. As a Doctor Who fan, I feel pretty confident in saying this felt like a very long, confusing, drawn-out episode of Doctor Who. In fact, it kind of felt like multiple Doctor Who episodes put in a blender and served to me in cheese cloth.

I was expected to eat the cheese cloth.

If that doesn't make sense, I'm afraid I can't explain it more.

This is well-written, but I couldn't help but feel incredibly disconnected/bored/apathetic for the majority of my reading time. And then I accidentally (or intentionally, depending on the author's original intent)

felt like I was reading about something a step away from bestiality and that undermined the point of them not being quite as different as they thought. I had been picturing dogs that walked upright and a human girl, which made me a bit uncomfy, personally.

Overall, this was not bad, but I am also relieved to be done with it and ready to read something else. I would recommend it to fans of Strange the Dreamer and Doctor Who. 

Not rating this because of my conflicted feelings on this series as a whole (there are unavoidable problematic elements, particular in BIPOC rep/treatment and the way gender is spoken about ((i.e. repeated instances of "male, female, or creature")), but I will say I think this was exactly what I needed to read right now.

There were a few lines that hit really hard with some things I've been dealing with lately and I'm grateful this also gave me the chance to stop thinking for a bit. 

Before I start the actual review, I'd like to place a warning that this isn't going to be a professional review, nor is it going to be without spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.

With that out of the way: this was fucking horrendous.

I didn't go into this expecting it to be spectacular (this pun is the only levity that shall exist in this review; cherish it), but Stephanie Garber's books mean a lot to me (Caraval is the book I credit with getting me back into reading) and I was looking forward to a fun, campy, cash-grab, Christmassy time.

What I got was a TellaLegend low-calorie dark romance kidnapping spectacle, complete with her mentally repeating phrases such as "the possessive touch that shouldn't feel good, but does" as he slips her hand up her skirt whilst she is blindfolded, gagged, and bound and you (the reader) don't know she's aware who her captor is. You aren't even supposed to know who her captor is. For all intents and purposes, you're meant to read it as though she's being assaulted. All for it to wrap up with the happy realization that she'd actually asked to be kidnapped by Legend and that she was "pretty sure" it was him for most of it.

What the actual fuck?

It's at this point of the review that I'd like to clarify: I'm not kink-shaming nor am I insinuating that roleplay is inherently harmful. But there's a very big difference between fiction depicting consenting adults' sexual exploration and a book being sold as a YA Christmas novella romanticizing SA/completely ignoring consent (Tella actually tells Legend ((referred to as 'her captor' in this scene because the reader isn't supposed to know it's been Legend all along)) to stop and he keeps going.)

This isn't about whether or not sex belongs in YA. This is about a novella with a really harmful message being poorly marketed and published for 12-18 year olds.

My indignation aside: this also just really sucked. We get barely any Scarlett (or Julian), most of the book (pre-kidnapping) revolves around the same Tella/Legend crap that ruined the original trilogy, and the plot is just... abhorrently dumb.

Honestly, the only good thing I have to say about it is that the art was very pretty and Christmassy.

Though it may not sound like it, I really was incredibly excited for this. Caraval is a book that meant so much to me when I first read it and I also really enjoyed the Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy. When this was announced, I was really looking forward to returning to the world with a holiday twist - a sad mistake on my part.

I'd like to think that Stephanie Garber didn't think about the implications of this book, but I find it hard to believe that no one brought up these concerns before it made it to publication.

Overall, I'm just really sad/disappointed that this was the direction they decided to go in. This could have been such a fun, cheery (while still maintaining Stephanie Garber's love of the dark/twisted) time if we'd thought for literally 2.5 seconds about the implications of the story and how it could come off the wrong way.

Also, if Tella and Legend just fell off the face of the earth but that's another point entirely :)

I don't recommend this, unless you really want 0.2 seconds of Scarlett and Julian and some festive Caraval art.

“The magic she believed in was of a different sort. The sort that cheered a pall of melancholy, that fed a hungry belly, that warmed a cold heart. She believed in kindness, in compassion, and in sharing what fortune she had---with those who needed it.”

Once again, Elizabeth Lim proves she is incapable of writing a bad book and I love her for that.

I was incredibly hesitant to pick this particular story up due to a lifelong distaste of the movie, but Elizabeth Lim wrote it and that fact was enough to make my decision.
To my relief (and probably the disappointment of others), this book has very little to do with Pinocchio/the events of the movie itself.

This book is about the Blue Fairy, her past and what led her to grant Geppetto's wish. It's really about sisterhood, family, compassion, and the complicated morality behind our choices (with any of the actual Pinocchio story happening in the last 20-ish% or so.)

So, I would recommend this but with the caveat that this is not Pinocchio's story. If you go in expecting/wanting that, you'll be sorely disappointed. But if you want a sweet family story with magic and the vibe of Pinocchio captured rather well, I would definitely suggest giving it a try.

Overall, I'm honestly surprised at how much I liked it. I can't see myself ever rereading it or thinking of it much in the future, but it was a good time and I'm glad I read it.