becandbooks's reviews
1118 reviews

Guys this book! It's been so long since I've been sucked into a fantasy!

I am still reeling at the world-building in this book. I honestly don't even care about all the dangers that I would have to worry about; I wanna live in Sempera!

The mythology and history is just so so mesmerizing. And then there is the story.

The twists and turns and danger and risk-taking and the self-discovery of a girl who really knows nothing about herself.

I LOVED the characters. I am so in love with the Gerling brothers and Ina Gold and all the long-lost friends that work as servants at Everless.

I love how much the world's mythology plays a part, I love the entire concept of a world in which time is not necessarily stable.

Did I mention that I loved this book?

I WISH THERE WAS DIVERSITY THOUGH! This is honestly the only thing that kept me from a 5 star review. There are so many different characters and yet the opportunity wasn't grasped.

I still highly recommend this debut novel and what is to be an incredibly gripping beginning to an absolutely fantastic series.


See my full review and more over at my blog!

This book was fun and had way more creep/gore factor than I was expecting. Which obviously meant I loved it.

I loved the different characters that appeared in this book - from their diversity, to their mysterious backgrounds, to all the paranormal.

While the book was still a little slow-paced, and even a tiny bit anti-climatic, for me (particularly because of the audio format) I think this book has set the series up well and I'm hoping the next book brings more to the table.

Definitely keeping my eyes peeled for [b:Court of Shadows|35180946|Court of Shadows (House of Furies, #2)|Madeleine Roux|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|56517986].

I want it to be noted that I read this book not realizing it was a sequel. At the time of this review, I have not yet read [b:Children of Icarus|29065483|Children of Icarus|Caighlan Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1455707804s/29065483.jpg|49294293] which I have 400% intentions of doing because this book was freaking AWESOME.

"We feed traitors to the monsters"

This book has monsters, a big ass maze, warring teenagers, Greek mythology, and characters that I have real and very raw emotions for!

The MC is a hardened, quiet, self-determined, and intelligent young woman who the reader is given no name for. Instead we know her as 'Fey Bell'. The strength is ridiculously admirable but her adolescent musings and emotions all pore through the cracks as well and holy cow I want her to be my best friend.

She's not the only character I have intense feelings though - Ryan, my gorgeous, scowling gem and Risa -but seriously I also want a Risa for myself, because she is precious and darling and dear me, have my children?

There will be monster slaying, there will be human slaying, there will be feuds and peril and serious serious trust issues (wouldn't you if EVERYONE HAD A SWORD OR SPEAR OR ARROW???).

My only gripe was that the world building - the stories of Icarus and why the Icarii, the characters backgrounds in Daedala, the losses that my beloved characters endured but I didn't - these are things that I wanted MORE of. But now, in hindsight and with the understanding that this was a sequel (I have NO IDEA how I missed this because it's the second thing mentioned on the book's NetGallery page? I am 130% assuming that I was distracted by the SO-SCRUMPTIOUS-I-WANNA-BITE-IT cover), I have faith that this has already been established in the first book of the series.

And so, I will be back with an update. CoI has already been ordered (at 3am this morning upon finishing CoD) and I will return with my update and hopefully so much further applause for Smith. Because honestly I am in love.

To see my Twitter ramblings for this book, click here.
A HUGE thank you for my ARC from NetGallery, Caighlan Smith, and Capstone!

This book is a world within itself. It is raw, real, hurt, love, and real life magic. There is a reason why so many people have fallen in love with Wein's writing, as well as Maddie and Julia.

A huge shout out to both Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell, who narrated the audiobook. They weaved their own miracle bringing this work of art to life.

Full review to come, but 112% recommended and 5 stars.

Okay I liked the idea of the story, but that was about it.

I just don't enjoy omnipresent narrators who speak as though they are the child of [a:Lemony Snicket|36746|Lemony Snicket|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1199734355p2/36746.jpg] and [b:Welcome to Night Vale|23129410|Welcome to Night Vale (Night Vale, #1)|Joseph Fink|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447774088s/23129410.jpg|42677282]. The book was too slow for me and too much extraneous, irrelevant detail.

Sorry Maggie, you just didn't win me over this time.

Full review to come.



EDIT: Sorry guys, I honestly cbf writing another review for this book bc I just didn't enjoy it. BUT you can check out my full review over at my blog!

TW: misogyny, slut shaming, fat shaming, rape, drug/alcohol addiction

When I finished this book I had a lot of mixed emotions. I honestly did not know how I was going to rate such a book. I put the review off countless times because of the emotion that came from thinking about this book. It was a bit of a rollercoaster.

Because here is the thing.

+As far as the plot goes, I honestly found it too slow and quite cliche.
+As a YA book, I found incredibly compelling, informative, honest, big-issue-tackling, full of positive female rep, and I L O V E D the bi rep.
+And then there was this one scene. That one scene made me so incredibly upset and disappointed at this book.

"I need to pop the delusion bubble and grow some fangs"

A lot of the positive feedback on this book concentrates on ALL THE GOOD IMPORTANT THINGS that this book brings to light. Of which I believe the authors deserve applause for.

Take Three Girls covers cyberbullying, self-image, feminism and the gender discrimination, sexuality, and the importance of friendship and having a support circle. This book contains so many important discussion points that should be included in YA books. And if I could just base it off this the book was heading for a 3- to 4-star review.

“I hear longing in these notes. They go all the way to the past and forward to some future where I haven't yet arrived.”

But in amongst all these super important themes that the book explores and discusses, they missed one. The authors threw something in and then chose to not name it, not discuss it further, and therefore I also haven't seen a single review discuss it's poor inclusion in this book.

Spoiler

About halfway through the book, one of the MCs is raped. The entire scene is about a page long, but at no point is it made explicitly obvious to the reader. Following the scene, there is a comment from another MC about sex, but it's pretty much implied as consensual.

I read the rest of the book, desperate to find some sort of reference to the scene occurring but there was nothing.

If you want to hear a further discussion, check out my full review.

Simply put though; If you are to include something in a book that is of this nature, be clear and explicit about what it is. Do not put in this scene and then leave out all further discussion of it. Do not refuse to name it. 

This one scene brought a potentially 4-star review down to 2-stars. I give the book credit for all that it did, but the poor way this scene was handled is just too concerning for me to ignore.

In many ways, this is a good book. But that scene ruined it for me. The ways the authors chose to handle the scene ruined it for me.

And honestly, it's a shame.



Full review | More reviews | Twitter | Pinterest | A room without books is like a body without a soul (M.T. Cicero)

I received this ARC for NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. A big thank you to ND Gomes and Harlequin Australia!
This review is based on an uncorrected proof and therefore quotes may not reflect the published book.


This book was beautifully written. It had a flow that was so easy to engage and from the start, I was anticipating a great little thriller. That, however, was about everything this book gave me.

“My sister is always talking about the flower that blooms just once at midnight – the kadapul flower, which is only found in Sri Lanka.”

Blackbird has a plot that was so glaringly obvious, so early in the book, that I quickly lost interest. This book sorely lacked in EVERYTHING. From the young sister trying to seek answers, to the old male detective who has serious transgressions in his past but that doesn’t stop him from being the saviour of the story.

It has all been done before.

The only original thing I took away from this book was the mysterious death of 5000 blackbirds at the beginning of the story. But it turns out

Spoiler

this had nothing to do with the storyline AT ALL. Why all the birds died on New Year’s Eve at once? I have no idea.

All in all – I enjoyed Gomes writing and therefore I may pick up another of their books in the future. However, this story in particular gave me nothing that I haven’t already experienced before in a crime mystery novel.



Full review | More reviews | Twitter | Pinterest | Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten (N. Gaiman)

You know the feeling when you just want to watch trashy tv? Whether it's a horror movie with no real plot line, a teen vamp movie, or Judge Judy. That is kinda how I view this book.

"The figure jumped, startled by the volume of her terror, and dropped something. A knife thudded onto the carpet between them."

My biggest issue with this book was the inconsistent pacing. Like when you watch a horror movie JUST for the gore and jump scares but still have to sit through 'storyline' scenes.

The first chapter was really engaging and I was amped. And then I had to sit through like another four chapters before much else happened. And this continues throughout THE ENTIRE BOOK. This is a horror story so I was expecting everything to be fast-paced. Instead, was sorely disappointed and had to push through some parts.

The in-between action scenes were very blase. The MC romance with is meh. There are the side characters that pop in and out, but I didn't really engage or relate with any of them.

I picked up the book hoping that it was gonna be a riveting cheap thrill. But I just have the feeling that the book was trying too hard to be a well-developed YA contemporary. Which honestly just didn't fit and bored me to no end.

"Someday, their story would be a chapter in one of those sleazy, mass-market, true-crime paperbacks that were shelved in the cobwebbed corners of used bookstores - the types of paperbacks that boasted about the number of crime-scene photographs inside."

I did not appreciate the random throw-in of self-diagnosed mental health of a side character. This was stupid and unnecessary. It added nothing to the story. Even worse, was the mum "...who'd spent her early years working in psychiatric units, she was always diagnosing everyone." Just no. Your mum obviously knew nothing about mental health or the clients she worked for. No no no.

I didn't like the big twist at the end. It was anti-climatic and not relevant to the story AT ALL. It felt incredibly unpolished. Like a throw-in because it 'has' to be there.

Also the ending is SUPER cheesy. Okay, maybe it was to be expected but puleaze.

"Everywhere. They were everywhere.
Those who had left them and those who had been left behind."

Overall, there was something I enjoyed, however. Sometimes I want trashy thrill entertainment. And this book was plenty entertaining, gory, and thrilling. Not scary though. Which honestly is a bummer.




More reviews | Twitter | Pinterest | The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. (J. Austen)

TW: racial slurs and microaggressions, coming out, adultery

This book has so many wonderful things going for it, that I DID WANT to like this book.

Sixteen-year-old Sana Kiyohara has just moved to California with her family. It is here that Sana meets Jamie Ramirez. What follows is a story about falling for a girl, coming out, and dealing with racism and prejudice.

Now, you can already tell this book deals with a LOT of hard-hitting issues. Throw in a storyline that also tackles adultery and you have a book with a massive tick in the diversity column. But just because a book is diverse doesn't make it great.

All in all, I felt this book very teenage-romance insta-love rah rah rah. The audio narration DID NOT help with this. By the time I was halfway through the book I was completely over and done with girly giggles and teen-boppy squeals. I was a teenager once. I did not know anyone who acted like this?

At times, I really appreciated the discussion surrounding racial discrimination and prejudice. At times. There were also many, many times in which I became incredibly infuriated with the way similar issues were handled. I felt some characters were very unessecarily stereotypical in the way they were written. Also the entire debacle of

Spoiler

Sana's friends pressuring her into dating a guy now that her girlfriend wasn't working out? Because we KNOW you're gay and we understand and respect that BUT MAYBE YOU LIKE BOYS?! Maybe you are wrong in your sexuality and we are right even though we talk about being 100% cis and straight and therefore you should reconsider. I'm sorry but WTAF?

I respect anyone who is jumping on board with exploring such diverse issues in their writing. I do. But for me, this book just wasn't enjoyable.



More reviews | Twitter | Pinterest | I cannot live without books (T. Jefferson)

There were things that I liked, there were things that I thought pretty average. Not my favourite fairy-tale retelling, but not the worst either.