books_by_j's reviews
553 reviews

I really enjoyed this tale! Magic, demons, political, a love story (or 2), gods, curses! This definitely has it all.

Vanja quickly became one of my new favorite main characters. From page 1 she gets herself into a seemingly impossible situation. She present as initially morally gray but there is full character development. The side characters definitely make the book. Things are never truly as they seem!

I really like the authors writing. For the most part, the plot moved at a hood a pace, and I really like “4th wall” break every once in while where the reader was addressed as a way to give further insight into backstory and the main characters’ thoughts. I feel like it lulled in the second quarter of the book because it just felt like too much was going on? Or maybe things just felt a little too bleak for the main character so early on? Once I got to the second half of the book though, it was unputdownable! 

The sequel is DEFINITELY on my tbr!

I think I may have liked this more if I read it instead of listened to it. I just got so confused. The past/present timeline was difficult to follow, and there was just too many characters that were important to know. 

This one for me was equally intriguing and boring. It is a cool and interesting time period to read about, I enjoyed the hotel scenes, simply for the culture. 

I think I liked the magic? It made sense in the beginning but by the time I read the final climax scene,  I was confused. I think it was a mix of being too intricate and not explained enough. 

The characters were ok, I think the most interesting one was Hypnos who was a side character. The heist/thievery was interesting, but if it contained too much magic, I got a little lost. 

I do encourage readers to make sure they read the authors note….”history is a myth shaped by the tongues of conquerers

I really wanted to like this, but I just didn’t. I ended up skimming the last 100 pages or so. The characters were not like able and it just was an plot that just doesn’t feel realistic. I didn’t like the dialogue. 
There were some good parts but not really enough to make this worth it. 

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. It was well paced and super intriguing, I like the interview/screen play additions to really help set the crappy mood. Josie and Alix felt like real people, definitely something off about both of them which added to the suspense. 
I got a little bored in the middle, and then I started to not like it so much as the mystery started to become clearer. I don’t love an ambiguous ending, but with unreliable an narrator(s) it probably made the lost sense. 
I like the story, o read it in a day, but felt a little unfulfilled with the ending

Oh this was so good. Beautifully written with really layered characters. The ending was everything. There are so many characters and character POVs, I cared about every single one. 
I really enjoyed the writing, the plot moved seamlessly while still giving really good insight on the characters thoughts and feelings about the events in the book- which were really heavy. A fantastic portrait of real people going through a whole range of emotions and issues…betrayal, anger, grief, happiness, family, friendship, loyalty, justice, sense of purpose. 
It was just amazing, loved every second. 100% will be continuing the series!

I have mixed feelings about this book. I really loved the first part. I really believed and was into the story of Rune and Poppy. But then it got real real cringy. I found myself actually eye rolling a lot of the dialogue. The ending was average.
The Epilogue was a WTF moment. Like, why?

I’ve read all the large novels of this series and am going to back and reading the short stories and novellas in an attempt to pass the time until the next big book comes out. I love the world of outlander, the characters are my favorite, I could read about them doing the most mundane things. 

This short story (novella?) was pretty good. The first half I had a hard time finding the Jamie I am used to, but he was there by then end!!! Which makes sense as this takes place before even the first big book. It was cool to see Ian and Jamie’s friendship before they turn into in-laws. 

Overall a fun little adventure with some of my favorite characters!

Read as an ARC- this was going to be 4 stars for me, even as everything was getting wrapped up in the last 50 pages or so, but then I read the last chapter, and the epilogue. WTF, I’m so intrigued I need to know what happens. 

This novel is full of mystery and deceit. I don’t love this time period (late 1800s) especially for women, and their literally nonexistent role in society. But I thought the author did well to make the FMC a norm breaker, who pushed against the male characters around her. 

I loved the banter between Whit and Inez, their first meeting on the dock literally had me laughing out loud. Their romance is a slow burn- enemies, then friends, then more. 

The novel was well paced and my attention was held the entire time- the reason for my early judgement that it was 4 stars was becasue I could have used a bit more Egyptian history- which is more of a personal preference. There is plenty of adventure and treasure hunting which was fun, but for me, I like the history of it all too. 

The magic realism aspect was an awesome touch. And I appreciated that there were discussions about how tourism and archeology in Egypt, especially removing artifacts from the country, affected the locals. It was refreshing that the journey the characters were on was them trying to do the right thing. 

Really great book, I haven’t heard if there will be more in the world from this author but I sure hope so….0

I found this hard to follow- very slow paced in the beginning with kind of a lot of characters introduced. The audio book helped. I felt like the story is more with the characters- once I got them all straight I really liked them. Not much really happened for the first 3/4, but the last 1/4 was good. Still have a lot of unanswered questions and story lines-premises is  intresting so will continue the series.