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I'm lucky I just happened to find Icebreaker (The Hidden #1) by Lian Tanner at a thrift shop. I loved just how much this series opener reminded me of Snowpiecer. I don't know if I'll continue with the series, but if you're looking for a fascinating dystopian set on a ship, you'll have to try it.
My review is also on Goodreads.
I'm so glad I just happened to stumble on The Black Veins (Dead Magic #1) by Ashia Monet was just the kind of YA urban fantasy I was looking for. As much as I liked the magic system and the world-building, the characters really make the story. I hope we can still look forward to the sequel since this was released going on five years ago.
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Notorious Sorcerer (The Burnished City #1) by Davinia Evans sounded like it was going to be right up my alley, but it didn't quite work out for me as well as I had hoped. I just couldn't get into it. I might have preferred it without the multiple POVs and if the pacing were slowed down a little bit.
My review is also on Goodreads.
All of the stories in Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda by Jesse J. Holland are good, but not all of them stood out to me as much as I was hoping. That said my favorite story from the entire collection was "Return of the Queen" by Tananarive Due which features Ororo Munroe aka Storm.
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56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard is barely 300 pages but still felt way too long. I heard it compared to Riley Sager and Simone St. James which just didn't fit what it in my opinion. Also, the Covid-19 quarantine setting didn't work out for me. Finally, the alternating POVs could be quite confusing at time to follow.
My review is also on Goodreads.
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Blood For Blood (Wolf By Wolf #2) by Ryan Graudin was pretty fantastic! It follows the core cast from the first half of this duology, but the tone is a bit different. The horrors of the war are quite apparent. There are plenty of well executed shocks and twists. I've really enjoyed reading this author and I can't wait to try more of her work in the future.
My review is also on Goodreads.
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The idea of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus sounded intriguing to me, but after finishing it I think I must have read a different book that everyone else. I don't quite get the hype for this one. I think I was expecting something lighter and less heavy handed, or maybe feels more authentic for the time period it's set. I will say though that I liked the cooking show scenes and that I might try the tv show adaptation sometime.
My review is also on Goodreads.
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Blackheart Knights (Blackheart Knights #1) by Laure Eve was sitting on my shelf for way too long. I didn't know quite how much I needed this because it was pretty dang cool. It's an urban fantasy almost cyberpunk-esque King Arthur retelling where the story's Camelot has a little more in common with Gotham City than anything. It really had me hooked and I'm really looking forward to the sequel, Blackheart Ghosts. This book should have made a bigger splash when it was originally released.
My review is also on Goodreads.
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The idea of The Woodland Indians of the Western Great Lakes by Robert E. Ritzenthaler and Pat Ritzenthaler is fascinating is interesting for sure, but how they write about the topic feels like it's out of the 1950s or earlier. I was really surprised to see this was published in 1970. I would also be very interested to see how this would read if by Native American authors.
My review is also on Goodreads.
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The best part of A Cat with No Regrets (Alice Nestleton Mystery #8) by Lydia Adamson is no question the cover. It makes me want to see a team up between this cat here and the cat on the cover of Starter Villain by John Scalzi, and maybe even Disaster Girl. The rest of this book isn't worth picking at all - I'm not interested in reading any of the previous installments or future.
My review is also on Goodreads.
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Night School (Terror Academy #7) by Nicholas Pine sounded like it had potential but it was so bad. Not even so bad it's good, just plain bad. The main character is what I would consider to be brain dead. She also drives a Geo Tracker (this was *somehow* published in 1994) which I haven't thought about in years let alone actually seen one. There's also a moment when Obi-Wan Kenobi is spelled as "Obiewan Kenobe" during a conversation in the story. I just wanted Buffy, Angel, and Spike to knock some sense into all the characters in this story.
My review is also on Goodreads.
I found Crazy Time by Kate Wilhelm at a used book sale and it sounded pretty cool. It's compared to both The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the movie Topper, but the humor never worked for me. There are other inconsistencies and plot issues that didn't do it any favors either. That said it was fun seeing a character with the same first name as me. Also, there was an interesting misprint I found in the first edition copy I read: pages 90 and 91 are exactly the same and then the story picks back up from 90 on 92.
My review is also on Goodreads.
Have you read any of these books? Are you participating in this challenge? As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!
Sorry Lessons in Chemistry didn't work for you. But Icebreaker sounds really good!
ReplyDeleteI would still like to try the show someday. Icebreaker was quite a surprise!
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