Mini Book Reviews 3.0
Hello all,
I am not dead. It’s been a while since I wrote anything and thus I feel like an absolute disaster. It’s been an interesting month, to say the least. We’d been through quarantine, we had a birth and a pregnancy announcement in the family and my sister had brain surgery. To say that my mind was full would be an understatement. This is not to say that I didn’t get any reading done. I did read quite a bit actually, but I did not stick to my planned TBR for April. Who is surprised? No one. Yeah, I thought not.
I decided to do Mini Book Reviews instead of individual book reviews for now because I am so very behind on reviewing. I need to catch up before I commit to a long review. Besides, these are fun to do. I can gush or rant about way more things this way. I just have to do it as concisely as possible, which is not easy for my rumbling self. So I chose to think of this as a brain exorcize. Without further ado, here are mini-reviews for six of the books I read in April.
The Darkest King by Gena Showalter- 8/10- This is book whatever in the series (I just read them in publication order, but you can also check the author’s website if interested), so I will recommend you wait until reading all the books that came before first. This is a series about demon-possessed immortals, among other things, and tells how they found love. It’s paranormal romance so if you don’t like graphic sex I suggest caution, If you don’t mind sex I say go for it. There is a plot in each book, in addition to an overarching storyline. There is action, humor, romance. All the things that make a book good in my eyes. This book was good, but it was not my favorite in the series. The focus zoomed in too much on the couple, while still not making me feel like I truly knew them. There was a lack of friendship interaction and group interactions. I like to see how everyone is doing when reading the long-running series like this one.
The Shining by Stephen King- 7/10- okay so here’s the thing, I loved the ending of this book. It was everything I was hoping for. The problem is it took too long to get there. I understand building suspense and atmosphere and bonding with characters but I was not getting enough of those things. I don’t know exactly what it is that was lacking for me but I was just disappointed with about 80% of the book. I wanted more damn it. There were some freaky things presented that were not explored enough (the creepy AF barking man? What happened on the playground?). I also didn’t like Jack at any point in the book, and I didn’t like Wendy until pretty much the end of the book when she finally realized her son was being traumatized and took action. That scene with the snowmobile and her just shrugging it off (more or less) still pisses me off. Danny, the sweet cinnamon roll, was the only person I genuinely rooted for and read the book to the end. He was well developed, interesting, and acted like a child. I hate it when children are presented as just smaller adults. I know there is a sequel but I’m a little worried about reading it because what if it ruins Danny for me? Someone help me out here.
Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs- 8/10- this one is once again a part of a long-running series (It’s book twelve or book seventeen in the series) and a large expended world. I highly recommend you read it. Seriously, it’s so very good, and I want to have someone to talk to about those. I loved it so much, but once again felt like we were shortchanged on the certain group and character interactions. I loved Mercy per usual, I loved Adam. They were being themselves both in good and bad ways. We saw a lot of our favorites and it was great, but I still was left a little unsatisfied. Maybe if I had the next book in my greedy little paws I’d be happier but I have to wait. I will now go into Spoiler Land because I need to rant for a bit. Where is Coyote? Where is Mercy’s half brother? Why is he not pursuing Honey, whom we only saw for half a second in this book? Samuel and Arianna are always conveniently in Africa. I want answers now. I do hope we’re getting some romance brewing between Jesse and Tad? Because I’m not actually mad if there is. I could live with it. May I suggest a spin-off later on? I know you can’t fit all storylines into each book when you have so many storylines, but I just want to know all the answers. Also, the Walking Stick came back and I screamed in excitement when it did.
Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh- 10/10- Nalini Singh is my drug of choice. I put off reading her contemporary novels because the actual books would not much the mass market paperbacks I have of her paranormal series, which sounds crazy. They are however available on Audible Escape so I went for it. This series focuses on members of a fictional rock band. As always with Nalini’s books, I loved the development of the relationship, the extended cast of characters, the little cute things that everyone did for each other. Somehow reading her books always feels like coming home even when terrible things are happening in the books. I loved Fox and Molly and how they came together. I love that Fox was determined to make a relationship happen but didn’t push for it. He just went along until things happened his way. Molly is a badass, she works through her fears to be happy, and I admire that so much. Her competence kind of terrifies me though. We also got introduced to a wide cast of characters and I fell in love. It’s obvious everyone has their issues but the fact that they have a close-knit friendship gives me hope for them. Y’all know how I feel about friendship. You know.
Rock Courtship by Nalini Singh- 8/10- The only reason this gets a lower rating is that it was a novella and I wanted more. This is the second story in the Rock Series I mentioned above, and OMG the memos are strong in this one. This is seriously so cute I had issues handling myself at times. And people wonder why I have unrealistic expectations of men and relationships. David and Thea are just the cutest things in existence and if I only got a full book of them I would have given this one seventy-five stars. I don’t want to say much more about it because it’s the second story in the series and all you need to know if that you should read it. Well read the first one and then this one. Always read in order.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jankins Reid- 8/10- I did it. I finally read this one. The hype was real. I was not disappointed. I think I figured out the twist at the end earlier than many people because I have been listening to a lot of podcasts and also I have read books with similar plots before. But the writing was fantastic, the characters popped off the page, and the story engaging. The book is a story within a story, which is probably why I saw certain things coming. The two-layer method lends itself to me figuring out what will happen before it is revealed. I wish it was told differently so I could have gotten that WHOA moment. I know it seems like I’m complaining a lot, and I am, but I really did like this book. The only problem is that it was so good the little things get to me. I don’t want to talk about it too much because I don’t want to give too much away. I loved Evelyn as a character. She never pretended to be something she wasn’t and I appreciated that about her more than anything else. She didn’t pretend to herself or others.
Okay, here we are. These are the reviews I should have done at the beginning of April. Overall I enjoyed everything on this list, despite my grumbling and complaining. I’m sad to say that The Shining was the weakest read of this batch for me, but that is not to say that it was bad. I just had such high expectations for it… Oh well. I have no regrets. I hope you enjoyed this (very late) post and that you found something that you are now interested in reading. See you next time (which will hopefully be soon. Things have calmed down a bit so I have no reason not to be productive). Thanks for reading!
Anna
