mspilesofpaper's reviews
856 reviews

Hana Khan loves stories and her family, which is why she works as an unpaid intern at the local radio station, helps out in her mother's halal restaurant, and hosts regularly her anonymously-held podcast about being a brown Muslim girl. And, of course, having a flirty viral relationship with her no. 1 listener: StanleyP. So, when competition in the form of a flashy halal burger restaurant, and with 6" fellow Desi and Muslim Aydin, her world spirals. Turns out that not everything is as it appears.


Hana Khan Carries On is first and foremost a rom-com with a POC and Muslim cast. Except for three side characters, all characters are people of colour and Muslims. One side character is a Jew from Yemen, the second side character is a Catholic Italian-Canadian, and the third side character is a white man (no religion mentioned for him). And while it is a rom-com, the author also weaves into the story what it means to be a young POC and Muslim in Canada. Personally, I got an immersive insight into Hana's culture and experience from her point of view, which is likely representative of how POC and Muslims in Canada (and around the world) feel. While the majority of the book is relatively light-hearted, it still tackled racism (the everyday kind at work in the form of 'well-meant comments' but also the extreme kind from Nazis and AltRight groups), Islamophobia and how stereotypes, that others assume as representation, affect people. In addition, Jalaluddin also discusses one's identity within the family and society, and how expectations and traditions affect the building of your own identity. Turns out, finding your own voice is a time-consuming process that involves more than one person.

Only four stars because despite having adult characters, they felt sometimes slightly like YA characters. Hana is 24, Aydin is 27, and yet they gave me the feeling of being barely 18 years old when it came to some of their actions.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc.

Ex is a hunter. A Phi Hunter; slaying ghosts and demons of the Suyoram Kingdom is all what he did for the last 12 years. Dreaming of becoming a true Demon Slayer by hunting down Shar-Ala, a demon of nightmares. Meeting a heavily pregnant woman in a backwater village asking for his help to reach the local hedgewitch is not part of his plans. Yet, as the bounties for slaying monsters, and peddling their body parts, decrease each time, he has no other way than to accept it as the woman pays well. While they reach the witch, the story of Ex and Arinya does not end there.


A fast-paced, action-ridden fantasy novel set in a Thai-inspired world. The book is jammed with Thai folklore, lots of ghosts and monsters, demon hunters, and quite bloody action. (If you are squeezy when blood, innards & Co are mentioned, you might want to skip The Last Phi Hunter or consider the warning when ordering the book.) While there is romance in the story, it is subtle and in the background. So, please don't expect some romantasy! It is a dark fantasy novel after all.

Aside from ghosts and monsters, the author also explores themes like spirituality (especially as the old ways are threatened by a new religion and general progress), loneliness and how it affects people, one's identity within society, as well as race and class. 

Dylan Tang (US-American with Chinese/Singaporean parents) helps out in his aunt's struggling takeout in NYC while also trying to keep his 3.5 GPA. When he delivers the last takeout of the route, he meets Theo Somers. Theo is charming, wealthy and certainly quite Dylan's type. Shenanigans happen and Dylan becomes Theo's fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons to avoid another round of "Oh, you're single? I know someone for you!" from his family. Unfortunately, not everyone in Theo's family is kind and approves of the boys' relationship, which just adds stress to it while Dylan is also working hard to perfect his mooncake for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs (to honour his mother but also to help his aunt's business).


Fake Dates and Mooncakes is an adorable YA achillean contemporary romance novel, set in NYC (Brooklyn), and based on the tropes: fake dating, one bed. While there is instant love, it is well-handed in my opinion. Of course, it isn't a masterpiece of literature but it is cute, easy to read and the characters are likeable. Sometimes that's all I need from a book. A few things are glossed over and could have been explored more (like the theme of grief and loss of a parent, which is something that both boys deal with).

The only two things that annoyed me were the stereotypical 3rd act break-up and Theo's best friend Adrian (in combination with the butler). Something that I hate more than instant lust/love is the 3rd act break-up (no matter if it's based on miscommunication, an outside influence or something else). It's unnecessary and in this case, it could have been resolved if Dylan and Theo had talked with each other (and if Theo had talked with his father). Adrian was just an asshole that was not required at any point. He didn't add anything to the story aside from having two scenes where he causes issues (and the reader never knows why Theo is actually friends with him aside from 'I know him since I was a child').

Ana Davenport is a journalist who is tasked by her boss to write an article about the witch coven that exists in the countryside. A trivial piece to make fun of them, so the newspaper "The City Herald" can sell newspapers to people who would not buy otherwise the paper. When she arrives in the town, she's quickly drawn into something else: a quest to find out about the witch box that was found buried on top of a monument (burial ground for witches). It is something that she considers as her 'breakthrough' story to get her career started. Of course, her boss doesn't like the idea. However, before they get far into it, murders start to happen. [And at this point, I DNFed the book because I couldn't take it anymore.]


While the entire story feels much like a rough first draft of the novel, the writing style and the behaviour of the two main characters annoyed me by far more. The author tends to over-write in style. E.g., Ana takes a two-hour train ride from the city to the remote town in the countryside where she arrives at a remote train station, and the author has to highlight even afterwards that she is the only one to disembark. It would have been enough to say that she disembarks as the only passenger at the town's train station since we already learned that she is on a two-hour train ride to the town. Unfortunately, it isn't the only example where the author wrote like this. In addition to the writing style, the author uses slurs (e.g., the g-slur) and makes generally use of questionable vocabulary. Describing pagans as weirdos is something but to write that writing about them to make other people laugh (and realise that they might be less weird) to sell a paper (Yes, that's something that Ana's boss says.) is just icky.

The characters are just ... they are something. Ana is on her way to write about the witch coven and bemoans the entire time that she hates doing it because a) she whines about her career and b) she doesn't believe in the practice. I would expect better from a journalist who wants to be an investigative journalist in the future. Not very surprisingly, she promises she wouldn't write about anything that the witches wouldn't approve of. (I'm sure her boss would love that.) Also, she is not the smartest cookie. She keeps getting surprised by tiny things (e.g., an old woman requiring a cane), tends to miss obvious things (e.g., doors), and has no people reading skill (e.g., trusting Ezra's dad when everything about him makes him rather swarmy). Excellent characteristics to be an investigative journalist. By the point, where I DNFed, she was mad with Ezra because he didn't want to continue researching the witch box after his childhood friend was murdered. Destroying ancient artefacts does not sit well with me but I can understand his reasoning because he's in shock and grieving. Instead of being supportive,  she gets mad at him and acts like he hurt her in any way. (Likely that she will go to Ezra's father, so she can continue with her story because trusts the man, whom she met for five minutes, more than Ezra. I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be the villain because it would fit into the stupidity of this plot.)

Ezra is in no way any better though. He's broody and off-standish at first before he becomes suddenly the occult historian with rizz (e.g., boning a lascivious librarian at her workplace which leads to him being banned from the library) who has no regard for rules, himself or anyone with him (e.g., getting fake entrance into the forbidden area of said library and then stealing a priceless book ... classic historian behaviour). Of course, he is utterly obsessed with the witch box and has access to a private research lab but never noticed the slots at the box's bottom. Of course, Ana is considered as a genius for figuring out a puzzle box with a difficulty level for a child.

Aside from these two blatant annoying things: there is no world-building. It starts with the newspaper's name ("The City Herald" -- FROM WHICH FUCKING CITY!?) to not even knowing where the book is happening. I suspect that it might be Ireland because there's a throwaway mention of "mainland Europe" and the author lives in Ireland but that's just my guess. Then, the book dances between 'magical realism' and 'romantasy' and I wish the author would have settled for a genre. Say it is 'romantasy', create a fantasy world based on Ireland (or wherever the book takes place) and you can get away with a lot of magical elements because it is fantasy. Especially when my guess for the book's end is that Ana gets some kind of power through the witch box.

Lovely addition: the underlying stereotypical behaviour of men and women when eating. Of course, Ana orders the grilled chicken with a side salad and cuts everything into tiny pieces to eat with her fork. Of course, Ezra orders the burger with fries and takes large bites. Plus, the beautiful aspect of him kissing her when utterly drunk and she's somehow fine with it? Sweetheart, you have known the man since one day and apparently have some horrible background story with your ex.

I think I just get too old for YA novels because the entire series felt partly very young, and there's the issue with "there always needs to be something bigger and badder to fight" (especially if your main character dies ... twice).

Unlike the previous two books, Storm of Olympus drags on as it tries to finish a lot of subplots at the end, so Daphne and her merry band have to endure 300 (or more) trials and travel from A to B and back. I think, the entire subplot stories could have been shortened because a lot of parts don't offer anything new or of importance to the overall plot. Meanwhile, the ending felt rather rushed and utterly predictable in parts (but the predictability it something that irked me even in the previous two books).

Daphne is a Mary Sue (been a while since I encountered such a blatant one) who just got on my nerves. I know that it's YA, and therefore she's very young as well, but she's so stupid and her character/behaviour changes from one mood to another in 0.1 seconds. In general, her emotions rule her entire behaviour, and while she's portrayed as intelligent, I wouldn't consider her as intelligent as she lets her emotions dictate everything. Also, her constant "I can't trust my friends with the secrets and burdens I carry" and then is off to do something stupid because she doesn't talk to anyone is by far one of the most annoying aspects of her character (together with "No, I love you too much, I don't want you to die for me, and only I can make sacrifices").

Her relationships with Apollo and Hermes are strange. For Apollo, it feels like the relationship is just dragged out over three books as a 'slow burn' when there's not even much chemistry between them. It's more a hint of instant love/lust and forced proximity. Given that it is an extremely loose retelling of Apollo and Daphne, it is not very satisfying. Her relationship with Hermes is just downright ... ugh. It borderlines on romantic (making it a love triangle) although the romantic feelings seem to be more one-sided. I wish, they would have just been friends.

I have to say that I did like the aspect of how the gods came into being (it was something new), but the concept felt still underdeveloped. At one point, I think the author just lost her own plot and tried to shoehorn and finish everything now, which resulted in the dragged-out parts and the rushed ending.

Something I will never understand: why involve another Pantheon when you don't really do anything with them? It would have been epic to have several pantheons in the end fight (especially since it is based on the idea that all gardens are connected), but the author just involved the Aesir and tried to insert the Aesir arc into the end as well, where it doesn't add much. If you can leave out an entire subplot without changing the overall story or removing something from a character arc, you do not need the subplot.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc.


God, I wish I could tell you how I feel about An Education in Malice but I cannot because I'm just confused and highly irritated. I liked A Dowry in Blood (gave it 4 stars), so I was extremely hyped when a) I learned about this novel and b) got approved for an eArc. 

The entire book lacks direction and the ending is just as open-faced, and without any sense, as the rest of the novel. It jumps from one point to another point without any real connection, and I struggled a lot while reading it (to the point where I had to re-read sentences and paragraphs again because my brain couldn't be bothered to stay engaged; normally it's only so bad with academic papers).

I think, the lack of direction just stems from the lack of character development as all three main characters are utterly flat (and the side characters tend to disappear after like five pages). Their relationships are very rushed as well. Especially the romance between the girls; it just felt like insta-lust and that's something I despise in every book. Their hate/rivalry turned quickly into love but the love had no real substance aside from having the hots for each other (especially Laura for Carmilla).

A 100 pages more might have helped the novel as Gibson would have had time to develop the plot and the characters more then. 

Bonus points for meeting Magdalena again.

Aside from the fact that the book lacked extreme depth, my biggest issue is the use of slurs and the latent homophobia by Millie.

So lovely.

Atrocious writing (stilted and forced, weird use of words), use of slurs and homophobia aside, the book lacked extreme depth as there is no build-up in the relationship between Millie and Charlotte. The change between past and present is meant to act as build-up but it doesn't work as intended. So, the attraction/love that Millie feels for Charlotte is suddenly there. Also, the skip between past and present is just messy and I wish that authors would stop using it if they don't know how to use it.

Also, of course, Millie is petite but has curves for days, an enormous appetite and is funny.

The entire book feels as if a man wrote it and he just wanted to live out the stereotypical lesbian sex dream.

The sentence structure/writing style is giving me an aneurysm.

So many short, abrupt sentences that sound like "I did this. I did that. We did that." - there's no real connection between sentences and the paragraphs/chapters jump from one point to another.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this E-Arc.

The book follows the female slave Otrera who escapes her owner after murdering a man since the punishment for the crime would be death. Somehow, she earns Artemis' patronage and starts the quest to find a place of sanctuary where she can live in peace. Along the way, she picks up other women who also seek sanctuary from their lives.


The most interesting parts of the book are certainly the prologue and the epilogue as the gods and goddesses that appear feel more fleshed out than the mortal characters. I found the main character, Otrera, extremely exhausting and her behavioural change from page to page gave me a headache. On average, she's just utterly stupid and reckless as soon as men are involved while urging for caution when she is just with the other women. Her cluelessness behaviour when it comes to sex is baffling because it doesn't really fit into the time; even for someone who was sheltered, she would know something about it. The other characters are very bleak and two-dimensional except for Ares, who is portrayed in a kinder way than he normally is shown. Pamphilos is a prime example of it because I didn't see the point of him as his only character trait is "flee with me".

Overall the story is very flat and dull. Nothing was resolved in terms of the plot and the ending felt unsatisfying because it was sudden and badly rushed, which annoyed me because the rest of the plot is dragged out.

The slow burn is a real slow burn. Like an extreme version of it. There's tension between the characters but well ... aside from one sex dream and a weird version of "touch her and you will die", there's not much. I don't know how many books are supposed to be in the series but if the speed continues, they might get to the romance in book 3 or 4. (And given how involved Ares is with the Amazons, I bet there will be an actual romance at one point.)

Points for actually involving historical people instead of going the 100% fictional/fantasy route that erases all historical characters. 

Unfortunately, the book still requires a few rounds of editing because there are plenty of errors. A bunch of grammar errors but also logical ones, e.g. Otrera already knows the name of one character but asks for the character's name on the next page. Also, the marketing/writing style for the book is off. It reads as YA while it gets marketed as adult because of mature themes. While there are a bunch of trigger warnings (e.g., sexual assault, attempted rape, death of children), they weren't too different from what you can read in YA as well. The most adult theme might be the sex jokes.

Sometimes very predictable and Gwen got on my nerves with her behaviour. I hope she gets more reasonable in book 3 & 4