The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

"Tell me, my queen, are you ready to play with fate?"

Do you know how hard it was to pick a quote to start this out?

So many quotes. 

So many things.

I swear I'll be eloquent about this book in this review, even though my current emotion is OHMYGODMYHEARTICANNOTBYEILOVETHISBOOK. 

You know how it goes.

This review will be possibly long but. I have a lot to say about this book. SO I AM GOING TO SAY IT.

This book is released on April 26th, 2016

Genre:  Fantasy

Feelings: Not as many WOW I'M SAD feelings but there are some.

Cuteness: Yes with a capital Y.

Fast pacing: Nawww but after I got into it and got to the Things I didn't care.

Series: ?????????????????

Read if you like: Indian folklore. The sort of setting that books like "The Forbidden Wish" That like sandy feel. And the sari and silk and !!!! 

Content: Kissy kissy. Some potential aggressive cuddling but it never goes that far.

Trigger warning? Some verbal abuse type situations. Family and parents are distant and unloving. Loss of family members.

In summary...She has been cursed with a horoscope that promised death and destruction everywhere she goes. There's no escape, or so it seems. A mysterious stranger, a lot of magical power, horses, and intrigue ensue. 

Thoughts: Blood on sand. Parchment, and thread

Rating: 5/5 stars

This Review is Spoiler Free

How does one begin with this novel. I don’t even know where to begin. I started it with much excitement, which then started to fade. I’ll admit, I wasn’t as wowed as it continued. The beginning was gorgeous, the setting flawless, the story intriguing. But then, the romance started, and the excitement died down. I loved the romance. But where was the big kabams I wanted? The big bang pow? 

I’ve never been so glad that I stuck with a novel. It blew me away.

-The Characters-

Maya.  Maya is the main character I have been itching for. Strong. Bitter. Determined. Not so unrealistically strong that she turns aside the temptation of power. She makes so many mistakes but never lets those stop her. Her voice was steady, struggling. I never once got bored of her narrating. Except those times I wanted the horse to narrate.

Amar. Oh, Amar. His good and bad. And more bad and a lot of good. The little grumpy brood bean. With the hair. And the poeticness that makes me laugh. And the darkness that settles in. He was such a fascinating character. Subconsciously I kept trying to “trope” him. Label him as “Evil Bad Guy Love Interest.” Or “Brooding Bad Boy” or “Looks like Could Kill You But Is Cinnamon Roll”. But he never fit any. Because there was none.

He was Amar.

He was him.

Him was Amar.

I like Amar.

Moving on. Other character. The other’s weren’t quite as intriguing, although many of the characters we meet are quite lovable. There just wasn’t enough of them to explode off the page.

Except Kamala. Kamala guys. The horse. Who may or may not plan on eating you but you love anyway. I want one.

-Plot And Writing-

I need about 4000 of Roshani’s books asap. Like. Roshani. YOUR WORDS. THEY MAKE ME SO HAPPY. I’m not a huge writer of fantasy, given the disaster my fantasy novel was. But after reading this it’s all I want to write.

Roshani has this way of words.  They fit this aesthetic of the story so wonderfully. They feel like sand, soft and flowing from a distance, until you pick up a handful and the grit gets everywhere and sticks to you. But then you bury yourself into it and it’s quite comfortable.

Prose goals.

(Also like we’ve totally talked back and forth on twitter so we’re PRACTICALLY besties. Coolest author ever. Go follow her)

Plotwise, this one is a slowburn. It could be that I was in a slump when I picked it up, but as soon as the initial inciting incident was over, I wasn’t as excited. I even told Linnea that. “Nothing Big is happening??”

But then.

It did.

Things started getting creepy and weird and making me put down the book and whisper “what the crap” to myself.

Then The Thing happened which I won’t talk about. But The Thing happened. Then the Other Thing happened. And One More Things.

So many Things happened in the latter half of this book, that I realized just how important and good that slowburn start was.  Granted, some of the Things didn’t get discussed as much as I thought? Who knows, perhaps there is plan for a sequel. The ending was so sudden and fast there could be. (I hope there is.) But that’s my one complaint. I will obsess over these Things till the day I die.

-Messages and Other-

My favorite types of books are books that don’t take so much time to tell you Lots of Important Things and Messages and yet still just say things.

This is one of those books.

There’s never any EMBRACE YOURSELF !!!!! or UR BEUATIFUL themes flung at you. And yet this story is what it is. A story of two people who will do everything for each other even though it takes them a while to see it. A story of a girl who has been cast aside and told she was the cause of every problem her entire life who finally got up and said “No. I am my own queen. My own person. And you cannot define me like that.”

It’s a story about not being controlled or defined by labels or mistakes, but it never needs to rub it in your face and say it outright for you to see it.

And I love books like that.

Overall…

I don’t even know what to say overall.

OVERALL JUST GO PREORDER IT.

Go.

Open amazon.

Have you done it yet?

….

Did you preorder?

Yes?

Good.

The Steep and Thorny Way by Cat Winters

"I can't run off with your family." 

"Don't think of it as running off with my family." I lifted my eyelids far enough to see the concerned blue or her irises. "Think of it as running off to be with me in a land like the ones we created as children."

"There's no such place, Hanalee."

"We'll make the place ourselves."

I was a little more than excited to read this book. I loved Cat Winter’s In the Shadow of Blackbirds, and was instantly in love with the idea of 1920’s Oregon murder mystery inspired by HAMLET? Yes.

Sadly, it wasn’t quite as overwhelmingly beautiful as I wanted.

Cat really did put a lot of research into this. That's obvious simply by reading the authors note. I appreciate the topics she dealt with, but unfortunately, I simply didn't care for the actual story.

Stats:

Genre:  Historical fiction (Paranormal wannabe)

Feelings: Yep

Cuteness: FRIENDSHIP

Fast pacing: i'm so sorry to say this but this book was so boring.

Series: Nope

Read if you like: Murder. 1920's. Diverse characters.

Content: A lot of talk of sex, but always in the terms along the lines of "The taking of virtue" and a few vaguely rude comments a few boys make because Hanalee and John are found asleep in the woods together. Some disturbing topics regarding hangings and such. Also this book has a gay male character, so there are some scenes that imply a lot to deal with that, which may bother people who aren't comfortable with it.

Trigger warning? Loss of a parent. Violent racism. Violent homophobia.

In summary...Being a girl of color in a 1920's oregon small town is not easy. It's especially not easy when the boy accused of killing your father was just released from prison. But things are not always as they seem, and with the help from some sketchy ghosts...Hanalee very well might discover just that.

Thoughts: Swamp water, pine needles, rough ropes

Messages: Too much to sum up. This book never really takes like, an obvious huge stance regarding racism and homophobia, but it paints a strong picture of what it was like and makes it clear how awful it was. Which is a stance in and of itself.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Just this once, I’m going to combine the “Characters” and “Plot/Writing” part of this review, since the reason I didn’t like them go hand in hand.

-The characters+Plot/Writing-

The root problem as to why I didn’t care for this book is really because it felt half-baked. Don’t get me wrong. The writing was very lovely as to be expected with Cat Winters. But the plot felt void of life. The ghosts? They were tossed in there. In my own writing, I sadly have experienced how hard it is to write a ghost story where the ghosts don’t feel tossed in. My own novel needs to be rewritten because of this.

But these ghosts could have been nonexistent. They felt like they had been put there for plot only purposes, and that’s not how I want my ghosts.

The mystery should have been scary. But it wasn’t. All that being said, this book was scary for other reasons, that I’ll talk about in the “Messages and other” part of this post. This plot was just half-baked.

And the characters really didn’t jump out at me. Hanalee. She was…okay. I appreciated her realism. I appreciated a well shaped diverse character. But I just didn’t care. I should have, but I didn’t. And the other boy. John? I liked him, because he was also a nice diverse, interesting character. And their friendship was wonderfully platonic (For obvious reasons). But I really didn’t care about these characters enough to really care about the story and I don’t know why.

For me, characters are important. No matter how well put together a plot is, if I don’t care about the characters then I don’t care about the plot. I’ve never been one to be able to pick apart plots easily, unless I really think about it. And in this books case, the plot was lacking because the characters were lacking, but they both were lacking because they didn’t feel finished. These characters were g o o d, but they lacked that reader connection. 

The one thing I did love in this book was the setting. It felt vibrant. Real. I adore the 20’s, but I have never thought particularly about the small western town feel of it. So I loved getting that swampy, foresty feel.

-Messages and other-

As said earlier, this is a scary book. Not because ghosts, or murder. But because this book shows so clearly how scary it would actually be for a girl like Hanalee in 1920’s Oregon. It’s scary because even if this wasn’t a murder story, her life would constantly be in danger. Because stepping into a restaurant would put her at risk. And that actually happened.

It was an absolutely despicable time in the terms of racism. Often times jokes are made that the 20’s aren’t much different than now in the sense of homophobia and racism, and while cases like the ones in this book are around, they are never as saturated into the community as they are here. And so, it’s scary to read this book and wonder how people survived. How many homosexuals and colored people got lynched and killed simply because of those things.

For that, this book really is an important one. Any book that deals with these topics is important. Which is why in the end, I did like it. I simply didn’t care about anything except the things it had to say.

Overall, this wasn’t a terrible book. I do think a lot of people will love it, and a lot of people do love it. I simply wasn’t able to care enough to love it. 

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Maybe Charlotte Holmes was still learning how to pick apart a case; maybe I was still learning how to write. We were Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. I was okay with that, I thought. We had things they didn't, too. 

I have so many mixed feelings about this story. This book had a lot of hype, and I was lucky enough to get an ARC. In the usual Mariesa-fashion, it took a few months to actually get to reading it. 

And I....enjoyed it?

This book comes out on March 1st

Stats:

Genre:  Modern day Mystery

Feelings: Eh?

Cuteness: -cough- i'm trying not to but I ship it. Honestly I'd sib-ship too. I just love the dynamic between these two.

Fast pacing: While the pacing was nice, this wasn't a -stay-up-until-2am-book for me

Series: IT BETTER BE.

Read if you like: Gee, Sherlock Holmes, maybe?

Content: Highschooly situations. As in, partying, dating, smoking and such. Drug use. A character was raped in the past, and this is discussed now and then but never in graphic detail.

Trigger warning? Drug use. Rape.

In summary... Jamie Watson has won a scholarship to a Connecticut prep school! Except...the downside is this school is home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective great-great-great-granddaughter. And when someone gets murder and both of them are framed...things go downhill.

Thoughts: Heels clicking on stone walkways, glass beakers and rough tree branches

Messages: I mean, there's drug stuff but this book never really has any MESSAGE about it?

Rating: 3.5/5

So I adore Sherlock Holmes. Naturally, this resulted in intense fangirling upon receiving this ARC.

But it took me so much longer to get through it then I'd wanted.

-The Characters-

Charlotte. She was wonderful. I had rather hoped that this Charlotte Holmes character would be a bit different than the BBC Sherlock, which she really wasn't. So while that was a tad disappointing, she still remains my favorite character. She was realistic, and her times of showing that humanity were well placed. Often times I can get a bit tired of female characters who are Too Much and Too Strong, but Charlotte was brilliant and strong-minded, but she still showed her human side. Like...three times. If that makes sense. She was just a fun character, okay.

Jamie Watson. The human equivalent of a vaguely sullen teddy bear who just cares a lot. He plays rugby. Meh. But he tries very hard. Kinda messes up a lot. Literally follows Charlotte to the ends of the earth. And you can tell he really likes her. Like really likes her, but that's not how Charlotte works, so I appreciate that he didn't push it. He was perfectly happy being her best friend and I liked that.

The side characters were fun, if kind of stereotypical. The villain was a bit meh, I guess is my major complaint. I loved the main characters enough to read this book, but the mystery side was a bit lacking.

-Plot and Writing-

This is a mystery novel. And it did have it's Murdery and Mystery-y aspects. But unfortunately, I just didn't care? I found myself skimming all the mystery-parts, which probably isn't good, but the parts of them sleuthing weren't as engaging as I'd hoped.

The climax came with the big villain info-dump, and the showdown itself wasn't all that exciting. Other parts of the book were actually more intriguing then the actual showdown.

Brittany is a great storyteller. I really look forward to reading her other stories, and I am hoping she writes more about these characters. Jamie's voice felt very strong and realistic to him, but to be honest, after reading the epilogue which is written from Charlotte's POV, I wanted the book to be her POV. Of course, that wouldn't have worked out. But I can hope, can't I?

To be perfectly honest, I think that Epilogue is the reason I enjoyed this book. I liked it, but that epilogue put the perfect bow on this story, and after reading it, I set it down and thought "Yes. Yes, I like these two. I'll keep them."

-Messages and other-

There's not much to say about the themes and messages of this book. Probably because this book doesn't have much to say either. There was no stance on the drugs, or any of the things dealt with, really. Some of the more serious things dealt with did feel a bit like plot-devices.

That basically sums up my thoughts on the story. This is a Good Book. But this isn't the type of book with hidden gems, lovely metaphors and themes and messages to take from it. It's just that. A Good Story with some Good Characters. I'm not saying that every book has to have these things, but it does help to make something memorable. Luckily, this book is clever enough that I don't think I'll be forgetting it anytime soon.

And SO. I did really enjoy this book. I'll put it back on my shelf fondly, and look forward to the next release. There better be one. I hope that if there are more installments, that they will have a bit more meaning.

Overall, I do really recommend this book. It's funny, it's fun to read, and these characters are quite easy to love. Read it, love it, just don't expect to learn from it.

The Dark Days Club by Allison Goodman

She remembered other whispers too, echoes of Lord Carlstons words: souls and darkness And one that she had heard over and over again: loss.

Another ARC I received! Of course it comes out in like 6 days but I was really busy okay.

Reading the reviews is a bit of a ? experience? Everyone seems to adore this book? I certainly didn't hate it. This book is a Good Story, a Good Historical, but a Meh Horror.

~this book will be released on Jan 25th~

the coveeerrrr, guys. ThE COvErR

Stats:

Genre:  Historical fiction paranormal

Feelings: Naw

Happiness: Fun?

Cuteness: Not really, for me at least. VErrrryrYYyyY vague romance. Like it's romance but not in your face insta-love

Fast pacing: Slow, but it fit given the time period for some reason 

Series: Yup

Read if you like: Paranormal regency? Quirky plots?

Content: Some sex talk. Like. The monsters and stuff. It's complicated. But there's sex stuff. Kissing very c l o s e l y. And that's about it?

Trigger warning? Vague rape-like situations. 

In one sentence... Helen is supposed to focus on finishing her Season and getting married....but paranormal abilities and monsters are definitely things that can get in the way of that

Thoughts: Parasols. Dripping in blood. 

Messages: I guess you could call in feministic but it's not really. it's what you'd expect from Regency-Girl-Can-Do-The-Thing but I found it far from annoyingly feministic 

Overall

Rating: 3.5/5

Vague Spoilers regarding the paranormal aspects of story

-The characters-

Helen was kinda just a lot fantastic. Like. She was a well put together heroine. She was realistically curious, not overly annoying, but also not overly Merida-istic. You know, the whole "I CAN CHOSE WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE FIGHT ME" Don't get me wrong I love Merida but this trope can be overdone, especially when books are set in decades when the way people treated woman was crap, even to anti-feminists.

And like. I love how Goodman didn't force the femisim. Helen didn't complain about stitching or cooking or parties because that's a part of her life. Helen didn't complain that she was being smothered in womanly duties because she was raised for that.

Anyway. Helen. I'm glad that she was noble, ready to do the right thing, without being arrogant about it. She genuinely wants the best for everyone including herself, and that's shown well. She's not too mary-sue, but she's not too I Am ~Special~. 

Normally I don't care much about "Special" characters, but after reading so much of this genre, I have started to grow more accustumed to what is used a lot. 

Which brings me to why I am the few not raving about this book. 

-Writing and structure-

I feel like I would have asbolutely adored this book if I was fourteen. Back when I first started writing. Back when I wanted an epic histroical girl kicking ass and gifted with COOL POWERS. That was the type of story I loved. 

Okay, I still do. Who doesn't want historical settings with cool powers and weird creatures?

But something about this story didn't feel quite as dark, gothic and unsettling as I like historical paranormals to be. This book felt like the type of story younger-me would write. A story that tries to be scary and Big but doesn't quite get there. A story that uses different fonts for when characters write letters and all that. If it weren't for the sex stuff, it'd feel more vaguely middle-grade-y, at least for me.

Please don't get me wrong. A lot of people will love this. A lot of people do love this. But I love gothic atmospheres, and so I went into this expecting a Regency Creepy Atmosphere, with fluid writing and scariness. And I didn't get it. Allison is definitely a good storyteller, and I think her voice fits well with this decade. But it wasn't quite there for me.

Fourteen year old Mariesa is dying of the Awesome inside of me right now, that's for sure. But as for my horror loving side....meh. It's fully my fault for expecting horror, since it wasn't advertised as such but what can I say. I really like horror. And I like my paranormal stories to scare.

-Other-

Okay, Goodman, you did your research.

I've read a lot of speculative historical, given that's what I write. And you can tell when an author cares about historical accuracy not just cool monsters. And I appreciate that.The setting was so vibrant, and I adored it.

Basically, this book has a lot going for it. The atmosphere is good in everything except the fact that it's trying to be scary.

Also like. The sex stuff. Really weirded me out. The monster legit sucks the energy from someone while fornicating with them. 

What.

What.

Yeah I was weirded out. 

I was glad that Goodman didn't fling too much at you. She actually invented her own demon thing. And it was weird and uncomfortable. But she didn't just have this regency setting and suddenly go "OH YEAH SO VAMPIRESWEARWOLVESWITCHESZOMBIES EXIST"

Because all those would be so freaking awesome but all at once is hard to pull off

Overall, this book did a good job of telling a story with some well done characters. The paranormal atmospehre was lacking for me, but overall I think Goodman has a great start to a series on her hands, and the more I think about it, the more ready I am to give book two a shot. 

Go you