wickedplutoswickedreading's reviews
1250 reviews

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Holy. Shit.
So I had mixed feelings through the first half of this book. Some of the choices of characters or the way things were worded bugged me a bit....making me think, yikes I just really can't do YA anymore huh?

And then the second half of the book was BATSHIT crazy. The second half is what made this a 4 star.
Odessa is not my favorite....like at all. But Lan is cool. Haidee is the best. Arjun is a muthafucking king.

And I already just ordered book 2. Because I need it.

Content Warnings

Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

This was a re-read but it had been years so I'd forgotten if I'd enjoyed it and who the killer was.

I loved this! Exciting, had me questioning constantly who actually "dunnit". Exciting ending. I love love love anytime "Papa Poirot" weaves his web with his little ideas to catch a murderer.

Black Coffee by Agatha Christie

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mysterious fast-paced

4.0

I will say that I liked having a closer peek at the thoughts of Hercule Poirot. I do have to contradict Christie's grandson a little bit....it does not read "just like an authentic Christie."
You can tell that this was adapted from a play, both from the smooth movements of "musical cups" in a pre-murder scene and from the overly dramatic villain speech. It's probably fun to see on stage but translated just a little wonky into a novel.
I was interested and it moves pretty fast.

The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking

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hopeful informative relaxing slow-paced

4.0

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

swashbuckling indeed, with interesting main characters, disguises, humor and a bit of sexual tension that honestly surprised me.

three things detracted from ultimate enjoyment:
1) the sudden antisemitism right near the end
2) the overly obvious stance of promonarchy from the author, to the point of being frankly, an aristocratic kiss-ass
and 3) the fact that Marguerite, while being very witty, was kinda dumb despite being toted as "the cleverest woman in all europe"

Still....will I read the other books? hell yeah

Content Warnings

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Interesting mystery....though maybe a bit too complicated.

I like Bobby and Frankie and found their banter and friendship to be pretty cute. I think that will probably be the best part of the movie adaptation (unless they messed it up!)

The villain's "you meddling kids" speech had me both tickled, as a fan of that kind of things from Scooby-Doo and the like....but also rolling my eyes because.....I also find that predictable writing. BUT because this is Agatha Christie....and she's from an older age of mysteries....
maybe that trope wasn't so played out back in the day. So I'll give it a little excuse.

Content Warnings