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smokedshelves's reviews
483 reviews
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen
3.0
thank you to penguin teen for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
i worry i may feel a ton more neutral about this book than most seem to be. there were a ton of things i loved and a ton of things that i thought should’ve been executed differently. and all together it put this as a middle of the road debut, for me personally. however, up front i want to say that i’d absolutely want to continue in this series. while i don’t fully have ideas of where this will go (as i felt it wrapped up in a way that totally could’ve been considered the true end point), i will stick around. i think amber chen has incredible potential to expand on this story, with the greater universe becoming involved.
i think, for me, personally it was the toughest for me to get along with the fact that everyone BUT the love interest believed in her disguise. i still don’t understand how he was able to clock her literally right away. but over the course of multiple months not another person discovered her out (of course not including ye-kan). but also, with him knowing about her kind of fueled an insta-love type romance. i do wish we had more of a chance to see them interact before developing their relationship. and yes, this might just be me, but i really really wish that we could’ve had a queer sub-context story in true mulan retelling fashion. but! we persist.
i do think the story was interesting, even if i felt like ying’s story essentially strayed a tad from her original goal (find her father’s killer). but i think chen did a fairly good job weaving that story with the apprentice path she pursued. it was definitely an interesting take on one of these kind of, sort of chosen one stories. and of course, with it centering around her experience as a women, facing very misogynistic thoughts, i think it was handled fairly well. ying experienced a lot of second hand misogynistic comments from her fellow competitors and from the guild members. and she never let that stop her from working hard and essentially proving them wrong (even if they didn’t directly know).
overall, while this wasn’t a personal fave for me, i truly adored the characters. and i will be eagerly waiting to see more, especially from ye-yang’s story. i would love to see us in his mind in the next book, even if i know we’ll likely continue to follow ying. ye-yang was truly as stand-out for me. ever the graceful, his deadly instincts but quiet demeanor truly were so fun to read about. color me intrigued.
original review
RTC soon :)
i worry i may feel a ton more neutral about this book than most seem to be. there were a ton of things i loved and a ton of things that i thought should’ve been executed differently. and all together it put this as a middle of the road debut, for me personally. however, up front i want to say that i’d absolutely want to continue in this series. while i don’t fully have ideas of where this will go (as i felt it wrapped up in a way that totally could’ve been considered the true end point), i will stick around. i think amber chen has incredible potential to expand on this story, with the greater universe becoming involved.
i think, for me, personally it was the toughest for me to get along with the fact that everyone BUT the love interest believed in her disguise. i still don’t understand how he was able to clock her literally right away. but over the course of multiple months not another person discovered her out (of course not including ye-kan). but also, with him knowing about her kind of fueled an insta-love type romance. i do wish we had more of a chance to see them interact before developing their relationship. and yes, this might just be me, but i really really wish that we could’ve had a queer sub-context story in true mulan retelling fashion. but! we persist.
i do think the story was interesting, even if i felt like ying’s story essentially strayed a tad from her original goal (find her father’s killer). but i think chen did a fairly good job weaving that story with the apprentice path she pursued. it was definitely an interesting take on one of these kind of, sort of chosen one stories. and of course, with it centering around her experience as a women, facing very misogynistic thoughts, i think it was handled fairly well. ying experienced a lot of second hand misogynistic comments from her fellow competitors and from the guild members. and she never let that stop her from working hard and essentially proving them wrong (even if they didn’t directly know).
overall, while this wasn’t a personal fave for me, i truly adored the characters. and i will be eagerly waiting to see more, especially from ye-yang’s story. i would love to see us in his mind in the next book, even if i know we’ll likely continue to follow ying. ye-yang was truly as stand-out for me. ever the graceful, his deadly instincts but quiet demeanor truly were so fun to read about. color me intrigued.
original review
RTC soon :)
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
4.0
sometimes the girlies just want to have fun and sometimes i am that girly.
The Hunter's Gambit by Ciel Pierlot
2.0
thank you to angry robot publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
i think this book had so much potential for it to be something i loved. polyamorous vampires in an extravagant palace setting with political games and secret rituals. what isn’t there to like? (apparently a lot of things, unfortunately).
our main character, kazan, well to me her only character traits were that she lies a lot and she has this *huge* scar across her face that makes her “so ugly” and “unattractive” and literally all that anyone says to her. and well… she was just incredibly boring to be following inside their head. i would definitely agree that she’s quite smart and is able to navigate the vampire world she’s dropped into fairly well. but truly, the only defining things about how she makes decisions is based off of those two “traits” that i stated. and after 300 pages, to me, it just became difficult to trudge through unfortunately.
you could also argue that her third personality trait was brought upon by an incredibly magical sword that can kill vampires (seemingly without leaving a trace). most of how she moves throughout the vampire palace is to find that damn sword. and it hinders her ability to think through things more than once. it’s sadly true that there was more personality in either of the love interests than the main character. and not only that, but their personality was supplied with some very interesting lore that i wish were learned way more about than the passing paragraph or two we got from them.
objectively, i think this story could have been so much better. had we had another pass through to flesh out these characters. to pace the story better, because that last 1/3 was rushed for sure. to build out this vampiric society just a tad more. we were not given enough! i’m only slightly curious to see what ciel has in store next, but it unfortunately won’t be one i’m reaching to pick up first.
and side note: it’s never a flex to have your story compare to jay kristoff. that man is problematic through and through.
original review:
full review to come when i'm not jetlagged lol.
i think this book had so much potential for it to be something i loved. polyamorous vampires in an extravagant palace setting with political games and secret rituals. what isn’t there to like? (apparently a lot of things, unfortunately).
our main character, kazan, well to me her only character traits were that she lies a lot and she has this *huge* scar across her face that makes her “so ugly” and “unattractive” and literally all that anyone says to her. and well… she was just incredibly boring to be following inside their head. i would definitely agree that she’s quite smart and is able to navigate the vampire world she’s dropped into fairly well. but truly, the only defining things about how she makes decisions is based off of those two “traits” that i stated. and after 300 pages, to me, it just became difficult to trudge through unfortunately.
you could also argue that her third personality trait was brought upon by an incredibly magical sword that can kill vampires (seemingly without leaving a trace). most of how she moves throughout the vampire palace is to find that damn sword. and it hinders her ability to think through things more than once. it’s sadly true that there was more personality in either of the love interests than the main character. and not only that, but their personality was supplied with some very interesting lore that i wish were learned way more about than the passing paragraph or two we got from them.
objectively, i think this story could have been so much better. had we had another pass through to flesh out these characters. to pace the story better, because that last 1/3 was rushed for sure. to build out this vampiric society just a tad more. we were not given enough! i’m only slightly curious to see what ciel has in store next, but it unfortunately won’t be one i’m reaching to pick up first.
and side note: it’s never a flex to have your story compare to jay kristoff. that man is problematic through and through.
original review:
full review to come when i'm not jetlagged lol.