Review: EVERYDAY ANGEL by Victoria Schwab

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

I’m obviously not the target audience for this series, but I decided to read it anyway because I’m trying to read everything Victoria Schwab has written. I still really enjoyed this series though, and I think it would be especially great for the target audience of 12-year-old girls.

Aria is a guardian angel, and she has to earn her wings by helping three different girls through tough moments in their lives.

Each book is a standalone story following a different girl with a different problem. In the first installment, Aria helps Gabby deal with her brother’s sickness. In the second book, Aria helps Caroline deal with bullies at school. And in the last novel, Aria helps Mikayla learn to balance her happiness with her passion for dance.

Each book discusses friendship and family and the importance of helping others and being a kind person. These books are very wholesome and fun, and I know I would have absolutely loved them as a young girl.

Book 1, New Beginnings: 4/5 stars
Book 2, Second Chances: 4/5 stars
Book 3, Last Wishes: 4.25/5 stars

Review: A STUDY IN DROWNING by Ava Reid

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

I was not prepared for how much I liked A Study in Drowning. This is my first novel by Ava Reid but it definitely won’t be my last because I absolutely loved her writing style. 

We follow Effy, an architecture student who wishes she were a literature student. She finds solace in the classic novel Angharad written by the mysterious Emrys Myrddin, and then one day she is given the opportunity to redesign the Myrddin estate and she couldn’t be happier. 

While working on her plans at the Myrddin estate, a literature scholar named Preston shows up and is determined to prove Myrddin’s works weren’t actually written by him. At first, the two butt heads over their differing opinions of Myrddin, but eventually some secrets come to light that cause them to join together against dark forces. 

A Study in Drowning is a magical and atmospheric novel with a dark setting, historical undertones, discussions of academia, old secrets buried in a crumbling house, a soft romance, and ethereal and captivating writing. I really enjoyed the novel, and I liked that it had a completely different feel from the generic YA novel format. I would absolutely recommend this book. 

Review: HAIRBALL by Matt Kindt

 

Rating: 1.25/5 stars 

I'd never heard of this graphic novel before and just happened to see it as available to download on Edelweiss. Pitched as Junji Ito meets Hayao Miyazaki, Hairball seemed like the perfect story for me because I love Hayao Miyazaki and I'm becoming more and more interested in horror stories this year. Plus, I love cats. 

Unfortunately, I did not like this book. I didn't care for the actual story, the characters, and especially not for the art style. The art was almost hard to look at, it was so bad. 

I really don't know who to recommend this book to, because it's definitely not one for Hayao Miyazaki fans. If you are interested in a cat that's a literal demon and is tearing a little girl's life apart to the point that she starts going crazy and has to go to therapy because of this cat, then you might enjoy this book. But it wasn't for me. 

Review: DEFIANT by Brandon Sanderson

 

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I was extremely excited to read Defiant as it was one of my most anticipated books of this year. It both did and did not live up to the hype for me. Let me explain.

Defiant is much darker than previous installments. It’s not as lighthearted and funny. I know Spensa has grown and evolved as a character over the past three books, but that also means her personality has become more somber and she no longer is full of bravado and anger like she was in the beginning books. This book is also primarily about Spensa, and there are hardly any scenes involving M-Bot or Doomslug, my two favorite characters and the source of the majority of the comic relief. So needless to say, this book just felt different. The last twenty percent was actually quite violent, too, which felt a little out of place considering how Spensa has changed during this book. 

I did enjoy the book as a whole, though, and Defiant was still a satisfying series conclusion full of unexpected twists that we’ve all come to love from Brandon’s books, but it also just felt like it was missing something. I can’t really put my finger on what exactly, and I wasn’t necessarily disappointed by the book, but I also wanted something more. 

I think that, overall, fans will enjoy this book and enjoy the conclusion to the Skyward series. We do get tiny cameos from many characters we’ve come to know throughout the whole series, including some new POVs besides Spensa’s. This series is the first true science fiction series I’ve read since space-based sci-fi isn’t my preferred genre, but I did still enjoy the series and I enjoy Brandon’s storytelling and characters. I’m excited to see what the future holds in the Skyward Legacy series coming out sometime next year.