Review: FLOWERHEART by Catherine Bakewell

Rating: 3/5 stars

Flowerheart is a standalone cottagecore fantasy novel brimming with flowers. It's cozy and wholesome and romantic. 

Clara Lucas has a special kind of magic that makes flowers bloom, but her magic is also a bit uncontrollable. So when she accidentally makes flowers bloom inside her father's chest, she seeks out the help of her childhood friend and magician Xavier Morwyn to help her heal her father. Xavier agrees to help, but only if Clara also helps him with his newest project: creating a cure to the poison Euphoria that has been sweeping the land. 

Clara and Xavier team up to practice magic and help those in need. While this novel seems to be all about flower magic, the true story is about helping those who aren't able to help themselves and making the world happier for everyone while also finding your own inner strength. 

I would recommend this book to fans of Charlie Holmberg and Rachel Griffin as the soft and wholesome magic felt similar to their stories. This book also gives off Ghibli vibes, so Ghibli fans may enjoy this novel as well. 

Flowerheart was an enjoyable book and it would be perfect for a calm afternoon read, but at the same time it wasn't life-changing and I don't think it will leave a lasting imprint on me. It's the kind of book that's fun to read when you're feeling sad or you need a warm hug, and you want a cozy story with a happy ending. It's not hard to get through and the subject matter isn't too heavy. I love reading soft fantasy stories like this one, so I look forward to seeing what other books Catherine Bakewell releases in the future and what other books come to be in the cottagecore genre. 

Review: THE WHISPERING DARK by Kelly Andrew

 

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Whispering Dark is a debut standalone dark academia YA fantasy about a deaf college girl and the mysterious boy she’s inexplicably connected to. 

I really enjoyed this book. Delaney is a delightful protagonist, and Colton is a dark and brooding good guy. I’m happy the love interest is actually a good person and not some manipulative jerk, which I feel we see far too often in YA books. 

I also love that Delaney is deaf and has to navigate the difficulties of college with a disability. It was so refreshing to see this honest portrayal, and the author is also deaf so the representation is authentic. There is also an authentically and positively portrayed Muslim side character. 

The characters are adults—Delaney is eighteen and a freshman in college, and Colton is a college senior—but this book is marketed as young adult. For the record, I think this book is being correctly marketed as it is written more like a young adult novel than an adult novel. I’m always wary when young adult novels have adult characters, but the story here is about Delaney coming to terms with how her disability impacts her life and the main focus is on uncovering the mystery of why some students have gone missing. It has a writing style aimed more at a younger audience, so I think the young adult market will enjoy this book, but I am an adult reader who also enjoyed it. 

There is some romance in the story, and even though Delaney and Colton spend most of the book together and you know they long to be with each other, the focus here is not on their romance, it’s on the mystery. I got so involved in trying to piece together the clues of the mystery that I had a hard time putting the book down. 

There were lots of mysterious components that kept me drawn in and guessing: a wall of names of the dead that seems to predict the future, a quiet boy who Lane is told to stay away from, a mysterious boy who’s told to stay away from Lane, those who were once dead and now aren’t, a boy who shows up in Adya’s peripheral vision who may or may not be dead, visions of the afterlife that may or may not be accurate, a secret and dark history of the school Lane’s attending, a mysterious man known only as the Apostle, and the curious ability to walk through the sky like a doorway. 

There are a lot of different elements to this story, and overall I did really enjoy it. The last fifty pages or so kind of lost me as I felt like the story got a little confusing and I didn’t completely love the ending, but I still liked the book as a whole and would recommend it. I’m looking forward to seeing what the author will write next. 

Review: ALONE WITH YOU IN THE ETHER by Olivie Blake

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

Olivie Blake has a way of writing characters and character interactions that make you feel like you intimately know each person on the page. If you like character-driven stories then this is the book for you. 

The writing style here is a little different from what I’ve seen before. It’s very stream-of-consciousness. I had a hard time when I first started the book because it took some time getting used to, but then I couldn’t stop reading. 

The subtitle on the cover is “a love story” but this book isn’t a traditional romance. It’s about Regan, an artist with a criminal background, and Aldo, a theoretical mathematician doctorate student, who get to know each other over the course of a promise of six conversations. Regan already has a boyfriend and Aldo is awkward and weird, but they connect and keep talking and learning about each other. 

This is kind of a weird story, but I really enjoyed it. I know it was self-published originally and then picked up by Tor, and I read the new traditionally published version so I can’t say how it compares to the original version, if anything changed at all. I’m glad Olivie Blake is getting attention and her stories are being published because I think she’s a good author, and she writes some of the best character-driven stories I’ve read. 

Review: STRIKE THE ZITHER by Joan He

 

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Strike the Zither is a YA fantasy based on a classic Chinese epic called the Three Kingdoms, mixed with inspirations from some other Chinese stories. This novel employs the classic trope of “pretend you’re defecting so you can join the enemy’s side and gain intel and then use that to turn around and destroy them.” We’ve all seen that done before but it was still enjoyable to read about here for the most part. 

I struggled to follow the story a bit. Zephyr was supposed to be doing these grand things but I felt like I kept missing them happen and then the scenes would be over. For example, I’m still not sure how Zephyr convinced Miasma to let her join her side because I feel like it would have taken a lot to prove that she defected from her original leader, but she pretty much just walks up and is like “I’m on your side now” and Miasma believes her. It was very weird. 

Zephyr conspires with different groups on different sides and I had a hard time gauging the layout of the land because these clans of people were battling and I didn’t think they were close in proximity but Zephyr travels back and forth like they are. I feel like the politics weren’t as fleshed out as they could have been, which made it a little difficult keeping track of the relationships and scheming between everyone. 

I found it hard to emotionally connect with any part of Strike the Zither. For some reason, I felt very distanced from the story, like a far-away viewer of unknown people rather than an active participant. I don’t feel like I know Zephyr that well, or anyone else for that matter. I wasn’t emotionally invested when betrayals or deaths or big events happened, and that saddened me. 

The story takes a drastic turn when stanza two begins, at the 50% mark. It’s like the book turns into an entirely different story with different characters in a different setting that felt narratively very disconnected from the first half of the story. I was quite confused and really didn’t enjoy it from then on, if I’m being honest. 

Also, I found the romance, if you can even call it that, to be quite unrealistic. Zephyr never really liked Crow, until she one day did? I never understood where the attraction came from, especially since he poisoned her and didn’t seem to like her all that much either. I didn’t understand their connection at all. 

Overall, I don’t think I’m the quite right audience for this book, and I can’t say for certain yet whether or not I will be reading the sequel. Strike the Zither ends on a cliffhanger of sorts that does pique my interest in how the story will progress in the next volume, but I don’t know if I’m committed enough to continue on with a series that I found to be just okay. 

I enjoyed The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He, which is why I picked up Strike the Zither. Even though I didn’t enjoy her newest book as much as I enjoyed her sophomore novel, I’m curious to see what other stories she’ll write in the future as I enjoy her writing style overall and the types of stories she writes. 

Review: POSTER GIRL by Veronica Roth

 

Rating: 3/5 stars

Sonya was the poster girl: the face of the Delegation when she was seventeen. Ten years later, the Delegation has fallen and Sonya is just trying to survive in her prison known as the Aperture. That is, until an old enemy returns and offers her freedom if she does one small task: find a missing girl.

Poster Girl is a sci-fi dystopian novel with a mystery aspect thrown in. I was interested in the world presented here, but I feel like it was never fully explained. The people live in the Aperture, which is a sort of prison, and it used to be the Delegation until that collapsed and the Triumvirate took over. People used to have the Elicit, a type of tablet, but now they have the Insight, which is a kind of camera injected directly into the eye. It allows the government to see what you see, but it also used to allow you to see a kind of digital screen overlaying your field of vision, at least until the Delegation fell and the Insight went silent. 

Are you a little confused? Do you have questions? Because that’s a really interesting setup so far, but that’s all it is: a setup. Those are also the only details I got in the whole book, and I needed more. I wanted to know more about the world and the technology but there just wasn’t enough information given in the novel. Both the Delegation and the Triumvirate are bad governments, but also they’re both not? I kept getting mixed signals and nothing was explained enough for me. 

And the book’s title is Poster Girl, and Sonya was the poster girl, but what does that even mean? I never found out. I know her face was on posters around the city and everyone recognizes her, but what was the purpose of that? What was the government trying to promote with her and also why her of everyone? So many questions but so few answers. This novel needed more development. 

I’m feeling pretty conflicted about Poster Girl. I enjoyed the overall plot and the mystery aspect, but I also had some problems with it. I wanted to like it more than I did. If I’m being honest, the only reason I read it was because it’s supposedly going to be the October selection for the adult Fairyloot box, and I try to read all the selections ahead of time so I know whether I like the book enough to buy it. This one I didn’t, and I wouldn’t have read it otherwise. I read Veronica Roth’s Divergent series and also a short story by her, and those were both fine, but she’s not an author that I feel like I need to keep up with or read all of her new releases. I have seen many classic YA authors branching out into adult novels lately, but the handful of those adult novels that I’ve read have been a letdown, and Poster Girl is no different. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t great. Truly, this book just needs more development to make it better. At under 300 pages, Poster Girl is a quick read, and it’s no wonder I felt like descriptions of the setting, government, plot, etc. were lacking and also felt like the characters were pretty flat. 

Would I recommend this book? It’s a hesitant yes, but only for the type of audience who is excited by the synopsis. It isn’t going to change your life, but it’s decent while it lasts. I found the ending to be rather anticlimactic and unmemorable, but also somehow still satisfying enough to be enjoyable. I really enjoy both dystopian stories and tech-based sci-fi stories, and while Poster Girl falls into both categories, it’s pretty middle-of-the-road in each. 

Review: THE UNDERTAKING OF HART AND MERCY by Megan Bannen

Rating: 4/5 stars

I’ve heard this novel described as Howl’s Moving Castle but for adults, and while I don’t totally agree with that statement, I still thought the story was whimsical and cute, and I really enjoyed it. 

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy is a hate-to-love romance with some fantasy elements. Mercy is an undertaker and Hart is a demigod marshal who brings her dead bodies to take care of. They hate each other but are forced to work together. One day, Hart writes a letter to no one about how lonely he is. He doesn’t expect it to get delivered to anyone, but it shows up at Mercy’s door, labeled as being from “a friend.” Mercy corresponds with this mysterious friend, confiding in him, neither of them knowing who is on the other end of the pen. I loved this idea because they fall in love with each other via handwritten letters while still hating each other in person. I’ve never seen that done before in a novel, but it was so much fun and had me giggling while I read because I knew more than the characters did about how they actually felt about each other. 

Although this novel is marketed as a fantasy, I think it would appeal more to romance readers who also enjoy fantastical components because the focus of the book is on the relationship between Hart and Mercy with a secondary focus on Mercy’s family and undertaking adventures. The fantasy elements are visibly present but also primarily in the background of the story, so readers expecting an epic fantasy will be disappointed here. I love romantic fantasy novels, so I had a great time with this story. 

I love that The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy is a standalone novel. As much as I love a long series, a good standalone that wraps up nicely at the end is so satisfying, and that’s how this book is. It has a nice conclusion and doesn’t leave any questions hanging open at the end. 

I had a great time reading this book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a cute and swoon-worthy fantasy romance novel. 

Review: SPELLS FOR FORGETTING by Adrienne Young

 

Rating: 4.25/5 stars

I picked this book up on a whim and I’m so glad I did because it was delightful! There’s an unsolved murder, a fire, a spell, a secret, a reclusive dark and forested town, and a whole lot of lies in this story. When August comes back to Saoirse Island after escaping eleven years ago, the whole island is anxious for him to leave again, but his visit is going to stir up more memories and secrets and enemies than anyone bargained for. 

Spells for Forgetting is a mystery novel that takes place on the mysterious Saorise Island off the coast of Seattle. Saorise Island isn’t a real place, but the Pacific Northwest vibes were still so accurate in this story! I grew up in the Seattle area, and I love to read books set in that area because there’s just a special ambiance in the air there that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else. 

Adrienne Young writes with beautiful, descriptive prose that helps to create a lush and atmospheric setting. I kept getting swept up in her words, and I’d end up reading five or ten chapters at a time when I’d planned on only one. This book is compulsively readable. 

Despite how long it took me to finish this book, it is actually the kind of book you could read in just one or two sittings. I’ve been in the middle of moving and working extra hours and generally being busier than normal during the last month, which has led to drastically less reading time than I normally have. It took me two weeks to read this book, but Spells for Forgetting is the kind of book I would have loved to finish in just a couple days if I had had the time because I was so wrapped up in the story and the characters. 

August and Emery really come to life in this novel. I loved getting to see snippets of their lives eleven years ago before everything happened and know how they used to be, and then get to see them in the current day and see how things have changed. You can feel so much yearning between them, even after all this time. This book has a second-chance romance aspect in it, but it doesn’t come into play until very late in the story. I loved them both though, and I’m happy we got to read from both of their POVs. 

I’ve seen Spells for Forgetting classified as fantasy, but it isn’t really; it’s a mystery. There is a very minor fantastical element included in the form of spells, but it’s the kind of spells that don’t feel fantastical. There aren’t mages or incantations but instead an old apothecary and an ancient book of herbal remedies and spells that seem more paranormal than fantastical. It feels like magic in the way that tarot cards and ouija boards and reading tea leaves feel like magic, but they’re still very much rooted in reality. I think fantasy readers will enjoy this book, but categorizing it solely as fantasy is cutting out a huge audience of fiction readers who would also enjoy this book. 

Spells for Forgetting reminded me a lot of A History of Wild Places, not in the plot but in the setting and the overall feel of the story. I loved that book and I loved this book, so if anyone knows of more similar titles, send them my way. 

I really enjoyed my time spent reading this novel. It was my first book by Adrienne Young, but her writing was so good that now I want to check out some of her other works. I definitely recommend Spells for Forgetting and can't wait to talk to my friends about it. 

Review: THE SHADOW OF THE GODS by John Gwynne

Rating: 2/5 stars

DNF at 50%. 

This book is 100% a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” I genuinely really wanted to like this book. I mean, dragons? Yes. A strong female protagonist who is also a mother? Yes. Epic fantasy with epic worldbuilding? Yes. Sounds great! But it’s also Norse mythology–based and focuses a lot on the gods. And that’s a no for me. 

John Gwynne is an excellent writer: he crafts fleshed-out and believable characters in a rich world with a compelling plot. But I just couldn’t find it in me to care. I feel so bad saying that because I think this is a good book, but I know it’s not a book for me. 

I started reading this book physically, and after fifty pages and finding it hard to continue, I switched to the audiobook. This story was easier to understand when reading with my eyes, but I just didn’t have it in me to keep going in that format. Because there are three POVs, the audiobook made it hard to track which POV I was reading from, so I kept getting confused about what was going on. 

I knew rather early on that I wouldn’t be finishing the series, but I at least wanted to finish this book. I struggle with mythology and any stories that are based on it or include it in any way. Doesn’t matter what kind of mythology either—I have never enjoyed it. I know some people love it though, and if that’s you, please check out this story. 

I have been hearing so many accolades for The Shadow of the Gods, and even more so for its sequel, The Hunger of the Gods, so I was excited to read it, but this just isn’t the series for me, due to no fault of the author but only due to my own personal preferences. 

If this book sounds interesting to you in any way, please go read it for yourself and don’t take my word for it. I still want to read John Gwynne’s Faithful and the Fallen series, so I do plan on getting to that eventually, but the Bloodsworn Saga is a pass for me.