armontheroad's reviews
571 reviews

My review of book one: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/b4aeb5f3-7b03-45d7-b87d-8c371fc27163

The representation in this book is significantly better than in BONDS OF BRASS. This is, no doubt, due to the fact Skrutskie got sensitivity readers this go around. This was going to be a 4.5 (because I will not give a five star to this cis white woman that profits off of queer characters of color) but from chapters 20-25 I was bored out of my mind. The first 19 chapters were so interesting! I loved being inside Gal’s hed because he’s just such a fun little chaotic Latino (which I can fully relate to), but the book lost me with Ren’s storyline. No spoilers, but it really bothered me that Skrustkie wanted Ren to be a big focus of this book. Instead of writing it in the third person to give Ren the screen time she needs, Skrutskie uses Gal as a camera from chapters 20-25. It was quite boring to read about, in my opinion. I will say, the ending of this book rocked me to my core! My theories from book one were FINALLY proved right and I created new theories for the final book that I’m hoping also prove to be right. OATHS OF LEGACY had so many instances where I was literally screaming and crying. The scene where Gal goes into protection mode, the knife-to-throat scene, the part where Gal talks about them never being allowed to apologize to each other- I was OBSESSED! 

I cannot scream about this book enough! The romance in this was beautifully done! However, I loved all of the other conversations being had in this!! Adiba Jaigirdar, once again, writes stunning and complex characters. There are so many instances where I was screaming at some of these characters for behaving a certain way but I couldn’t be upset with them because it was all so realistic. The discussions on toxic friendship were heartbreakingly accurate. I know this book will do so much good in the hands of young readers. Not only is it teaching a lot but it’s also filled with moments of fun and joy. Literally cannot think of a single thing I didn’t like about this. I will pick up anything Jaigirdar writes!!

CWs: Racism, homophobia (specifically biphobia and lesbophobia), Islamophobia, toxic friendship, gaslighting, and parental abandonment. (Thank you to Adiba Jaigirdar for providing this at the start of the book!)

All of Vashti Harrison’s books are little bursts of pure joy! I’ve mentioned this in one of my reviews for her other book, but these are absolutely delightful pieces I want to read to my future children.

Reading ASTRONOMY: A VISUAL GUIDE was such a lovely time!! I tabbed the hell out of so many interesting facts and beautiful images. I highly suggest this if you are someone beginning your journey into amateur astronomy. Ridpath does a brilliant job of explaining facts in an easy-to-understand way, whilst also ensuring you have enough information to jump off onto your own research. The formatting of this book definitely helps with this, as the text is broken up into smaller sections and images take up a good portion of the book. There are resources at the back on what equipment to use, where and when are the best places to begin your stargazing experience, and how to find exactly what you’re looking for in the sky. This book could easily be used to educate younger teens to older adults. It’s a versatile form of media that was very enjoyable to read, not to mention beautiful to look at!

I received an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you follow my page, you probably are aware that I *loved* the first book in this companion series, ACOUSTICS. So I was unbelievably excited when I got access to an Advanced Readers Copy of HARMONY. I read this back in March, before the release date, but wasn’t able to accurately put my thoughts together until now. 

To be quite honest, HARMONY just did not work for me. I rarely read a synopsis before I pick up a book- which is entirely an issue on me and not the author or the book itself- but if I had looked into the synopsis beforehand, I would have known that this has two of my LEAST favorite tropes! I do not think age gaps and teacher/student relationships are done well 98% of the time. They just give me major ick. With that as the foundation of the story, it was extremely difficult for me to care about these two people together. 

Not to forget, the sex scenes in this book were hard for me to read. With my background, if sex scenes in books have even the slightest hint of hostility (not in a consenting power-dynamic way), I cannot get onboard. There is a scene in this book where Hillary is having sex in a bathroom. Her mind starts to wonder because she has ADHD. Instead of Glenn stopping to see if she is okay or if they should stop, this is what happens:

This scene is supposed to be light-hearted and fun, I think. However, it rubbed me the wrong way. This isn’t the only time something icky happens during sex scenes in this book, if memory serves me well, which made the reading experience just that much more uncomfortable for me.

HARMONY is not a bad book by any means. I’ll still happily recommend it to people whom I think would enjoy it. If you like age gap romances, teacher/student dynamics, nonbinary love interests, and ADHD rep in a heroine, I think this could be for you. I did like the ADHD rep in this!! I loved we get a nonbinary character who isn’t a small skinny androgenous femme-perceived person. Also, seeing the boys from the first book pop in throughout HARMONY was so much fun because I utterly adore them!! Overall, I think this was a three-star rating. There was nothing horrendously bad about it but there wasn’t a whole like that I enjoyed. I look forward to reading more from London Price!!

This is my favorite book in the series! I loved both the heroine and the hero being Autistic and being Autistic in different ways. It’s so refreshing to see authentic rep where we aren’t burdens to the people around us. Autistic people are also infantilized to hell so seeing us being sexy and loved was so amazing! Eve was a fucking delight to read about!! I will say, Talia Hibbert has been great about not using biological sex to describe gender in all of her previous books, although all of them had references to a known transphobic author. In EVE BROWN, we do not get the TERF references but we did get minor TERF language in the terms of biological sex. Another thing that made me uncomfortable was how often the car accident is joked about. I’ve mentioned my feelings on Hibbert and her writing of car accidents in both my other reviews so I won’t go into it again here. Overall, I really enjoyed this! EVE BROWN was by far my favorite storyline, although I don’t think Eve and Jacob are my favorite couple from this trilogy! 

CWs/Tws: Car crash (major: on-page and continually referenced), TERF language (minor).

Let me preface this by saying I love Talia Hibbert and the relationship she created in this book. However, I think people are recommending this book without properly giving warnings about it and that is absurd. 

DANI BROWN was set up to be my favorite in this trilogy. An interracial relationship (where neither of them is white!!), friends to lovers, fake dating. This had everything I could have wanted. I truly believe I loved Dani and Zaf’s dynamic and story better than Chloe and Red from book one! However, I cannot let all of the little problems pile up without mentioning them. I won’t have other readers blindsided by the content in this novel. I would still highly recommend this book and the entire trilogy! I would just like people to be aware that even the most talented writers make mistakes and they should always be reading and reviewing critically ESPECIALLY when it comes to media they love! You never know what harm you can cause by not acknowledging the issues in the media you consume. 

CWs/Tws: Racism (minor), antisemitism, fatphobia (minor), car accident and death (past), Harry Potter/JKR references.

DNF 6 chapters in. I have THOUGHTS!! What solidified my DNF was the "What do YOU know about giving birth, you're a man!" *Stares in trans man*. Even without that, this book is just.... yikes.

This was a fine little children's book explaining space terminology. I've read better children's books about space, however this was still good and I would rec it!!

I am not a fantasy reader so my expectations for this were very low. However, this was a pleasant surprise! I really liked the discussions on gender and how being trans in a cis society is hard, even when you try to cater your appearance to cis people. I loved the fact that this is a fantasy world where magic does not exist because my brain very much struggles with following magic systems. I also just think it was a refreshing take on world-building a fantasy setting! Heavily appreciate the themes of queerness, PTSD, and justice. I do not have a list of content/trigger warnings as I found myself too immersed in the reading experience to jot any down. I would highly recommend searching through StoryGraph and booktriggerwarnings.com for them, though, because this book does not shy away from hard-hitting topics. I will leave below the few warnings I do remember.

CWs/Tws: Murder, death, blood, PTSD, body gore, etc.