honniker's reviews
987 reviews

I do like Tessa Dare. Her historical Romances are generally fun and pretty unique and interesting. I liked this one a lot. I appreciated Ash's curmudgeonly self and I liked the dynamic between him and Emma. 

I just can't do it anymore. What I was exoecting: A look at what the world could look like if the black plague destroyed Europe. 

What I got: a philosophical treatise. That goes on for like 700 pages. I was continuing my slog because occasionally there would be a page or two of something interesting until at 60%, in a discussion on the rise of Islam, It hit me like a slap that Islam might not have been a thing without Christianity because it was heavily influenced by it. Additionally, even if it had been a thing the sects most likely wouldnt have been the same. And while I think the author is trying to discuss the juncture of Islam and Buudhism and other eastern religions and philosophies, it's just, frankly, boring. And so, I'm just over it. 

This was an interesting cross section of various myths and legends from India, including sections of the Mahabrata. My main hesitation with recommending this book is, as someone who essentially had zero knowledge of Indian mythology prior to reading this, I found it a little confusing and hard to keep track of the names and figures. 

I liked the stories from the final section the best as I found them the most interesting. 

I won this in a Storygraph giveaway and I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn't sure about it, because to be honest, the title is unfortunate. It is long and confusing and if I'd seen this book on the shelf, I would have passed over it just based on the title alone. I almost didn't enter the giveaway because of it.

After receiving my copy and uploading it to my Kindle, I thought to myself, "Okay, I will read this and just get it out of the way." But I quickly became caught up in it. The book is a series of short stories set in  a sci-fi world. I'm not usually the biggest fan of short stories, but I found myself getting caught up in them and wondering about what was going to happen to the characters. 

For the most part, the world building was solid. There was only one time, where a "language" word was used that I couldn't figure out right away from context, and then I was able to figure it out a little later on in the story. The collection ticked a lot of boxes for me, with culture and such. I'm definitely going to be looking into the Author's other work. I'd like to thank the giveaway host, storygraph and the author for turning me on to this gem.

I found myself really enjoying this book. I got all emotional during several parts. I related a lot to Sadie being a free spirit. Definitely going to see if this author has other, similar titles out.

So, when I started this book I didn't realize how long it was. It's like 500 pages. The main pro is the amount of sexy times. Almost every chapter for the first 90% of the book has a sexy scene. That's great. 

Unfortunately, there are some cons that may outweigh the main pro. First of all, the book is slow. It's very relational and so there isn't really all that much conflict except the inter conflict Abby goes through. And there is a lot of it. It's actually really frustrating sometimes. This leads me to my next point. 

This book gets repetitive. The first like 92% of the book follows a sort of pattern. On top of that, there are only so many times I can read about Abby ducking her head to hide her face or Jake putting his hands on the sides of her face and kissing her before it becomes a little tedious. 

There were also some misspelled and misused words, which normally I notice but in this book, for some reason they really bothered me. It wasn't a ton, but it was enough to comment on it here. 

Finally, if you read for a happy ending, you won't get it here. There isn't one. There is a second book, which I've borrowed from Kindle Unlimited, but will probably wait a bit before reading because according to Amazon it clocks in at 700 pages. 

I did have some trouble with rating this book because I did finish it and I didn't feel like it was a slog per se. I am planning to read the second one. But there were also some majorly irritating things about it. 

This is hot! I love that it's an older married couple trying to reconnect. I look forward to the next one. 

When I realized the plot of this book, I realized there was only one way it could really end.

The gorilla had to die

. Don't ask me how I knew this. Maybe it comes from thirty years of being an avid reader, but I knew about halfway through the book. 

That aside, I still really enjoyed this. Did it get a bit flakey at the end? Sure? Did aspects of the ending feel rushed in regards to certain character growth? Most certainly. But I found myself enjoying this book right up to that point. It was an interesting premise. I would recommend it.