ashleerosereads's reviews
77 reviews

This unfortunately was a DNF for me. The writing was decent, but the plot was boring. I think a big thing was that this was supposed to be a love story made up of small moments between Vivian and Charlie, but it felt like they never amounted to anything. That and lack of quotation marks was driving me bonkers - I just couldn't do it. 

Thank you to Nickolas Butler, Sourcebooks Landmark, & NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own. 

This was a good, fast paced, palette cleansing read. As someone who normally (aka pretty much always) reads fantasy, this dabble into Contemporary Fiction was a nice change of pace for me. My heart ached for Suzie. But I was also able to empathize with her friends and family for putting in so much effort and energy into helping her, only for it to go seemingly over her had on her path of self destruction.

I think this story could've benefited from being a little bit longer - almost half of the story is the buildup of Suzie's declining mental health, and I don't think we got quite long enough of the fallout that was her running away and joining the mole people. She shows up, joins the clan, then almost immediately wants to leave and has difficulty doing so. I think Landt could've built up a lot more tension and suspense - I liked his writing style so I definitely think he had the chops to do it.

Thank you to Kevin Landt, Ryland Publishing, and NetGalley for the eARC! All opinions are my own.

I thought this was super cute & whimsical! I listened to the audiobook (kudos to you Rebecca Soler) and had a good time. I'm normally super critical but this one was just a mood / vibe read for me, something to put on when I was doing my skincare or driving. If I really wanted to I could probably find something to critique this a little harder, but honestly I just enjoyed going along for the ride.

I loved the relationship between Scarlett and Tella, the budding romance between Scarlett and Julian, and the whole Caraval adventure experience. Maybe it's because I watched too many tiktok edits with Melanie Martinez's "Carousel" playing in the background, but I wish we had just a little more whimsy in the world building and descriptions of the locations around Caraval. Lean a little more into the dark carnival vibes we've got goin on. All in all, it was cute, full of whimsy, and I enjoyed it. What more can you ask for? 

This was a breath of fresh air coming out of the disappointment that was Iron Flame. It feels like RY found her footing, found the direction she wanted to take the series, and buckled down to get there. Everyone and their mother is reviewing Onyx Storm so I'm going to keep mine relatively short. But honestly, this is my favorite in the series so far and has renewed my excitement for what's to come.

1. While the first 2 leaned more into Romantasy, this one veers more into Epic Fantasy with a romance subplot. I liked this - it feels like RY finally found her footing and is actively doing things to drive the plot.

2. TONS of character development!! I see a lot of people complaining about the characters and not remembering them but like... did you do a reread? I don't feel like these characters were just plucked out of thin air. We had background for minor characters, and major development for mid and major characters. I personally wasn't confused - we expanded a bunch on the plot, it makes sense that we also expand on the number of characters.

3. We got rid of the damn miscommunication trope that ruined IF for me!! Violet and Xaden have grown so much coming out of IF, and I really liked how mature they were about their relationship in this one. It just felt so locked in -

with Violet being driven to find a cure for Xaden, and Xaden focusing on not turning fully venin.

I just really liked their approach to this relationship and it didn't just feel like insta-love like it did in IF - they've done so much together and really have an opportunity to explore (or explore as much as they can with one or both of them flying off to do dragon things) their relationship and next steps. 

4. If you didn't like the first 2, you're not going to like this one. I feel like that's a given for any series. 

I really don't have any major complaints - just some minor ones that hindered a 5 ⭐️ review. The emotional scenes didn't impact me all that much. I saw a lot of people crying on tiktok and insta, and I didn't really have that reaction. I was saddened when I was supposed to be, but it didn't illicit a visceral emotional response - which is kinda what I need to give something 5 stars. I just wish it was a little more emotionally impactful for me. Beyond that - I'm really happy with the direction RY is taking the series in, and I'm very excited to continue this story.

Foundation takes everything that I enjoyed about Secrets of the Catalogue, and expands on it tenfold. It really feels like Spencer has found her groove and it's working really well for her. While we spent most of the first book exploring Emerson's relationship with Adrien and her indoctrination into the Central Library, in this one we focused on her renewed relationship with Silas and exploration of Foundation. We got both POV's of the Central Library vs the Foundation and the men who represent each faction, and I can only guess that we'll get some sort of final battle in the next one. As for the romance, I really hope we get a why choose 🤭

One critique I had of the first book was that we were introduced to the Librarian's power to enter the realms within books, but we only actually entered like 3 books. I'm really happy with the expansion of this concept in Foundation - not only was Foundation itself a book we spent the majority of our time in, but Emerson also jumped into at least 3 or 4 other books during her stay in Foundation and we spent a solid amount of time in each. Each book taught a valuable lesson to Emerson and drove the plot, and we weren't just there for the sake of her jumping in to a book. Spencer's world building really popped off here. I do wish we got just a little bit more descriptions of the tattoos that Emerson got as a result of all the books that she visited, we got a little bit (and I understand why we got what we did for the sake of the plot) but I love visual descriptions and just being able to have some passage after each book we visited that describes how her tattoo changes would've been 👩🏼‍🍳👌🏻

I'm really excited for the direction this book is going in! Thank you to Amelia Spencer & BookSirens for the eARC!

This series just keeps getting bigger and better. The stakes are higher. The war is worser. People are dying. Everything Darrow has done is culminated to this, and I wasn't ready. I'm not going to write a long winded review, but I loved this. IF Red Rising had remained a trilogy, this would be an amazing end. But it's not, so continue I must. I LOVED THIS TRILOGY

Vivian is 17 yrs old, a 2nd class citizen growing up in 1920's London. Viv works hard and studies harder to make sure the she and her little sister, Ursa, don't drop to third class. But when her parents are abruptly arrested for supposedly assisting the dragon rebellion, Viv has to resort to committing a major crime to try and get them out. Instead of jail, Viv is offered a "job" - codebreak the dragon language for her government. If she succeeds, she and her parents can go home and resume life as normal. If she fails, they all die. As Viv learns more about the dragons and their language, she comes to realize that the working relationship between dragons and humans isn't actually working, and she must choose who to side with in the war. 

I really enjoyed this!! I think this is an amazing YA novel that touches upon the politics of a class system and morally corrupt government, and making it palatable (as someone who doesn't like history) with the fantastical elements of dragons. It is age appropriate while also written mature enough to keep older readers invested. Viv is a strong, relatable, morally gray FMC who is wiling to do just about anything to try and save her family. The side characters were well rounded (and also morally gray, which I loved) - they all had committed some type of crime and all had something on the line, forcing them to work for the government for their and their families' freedom. We also had a cute romance sub-plot between Viv and one of the other people indebted to this program, I enjoyed their build up a lot. 

I also really enjoyed the world building - we got a good sense of the government and their incessant need to control the population and dragons, and the perpetual class system keeping them in control with the threat of poverty. The one thing that I think lacked in the world building was in the setting of the time period - we're told this takes place in the 1920's but we don't get a lot of visual storytelling that cements that fact. There's some tidbits here and there - the news stories that are dated and placed at the end of each chapter, and the device they use to codebreak is compared to a gramophone. But beyond that, we don't get a lot of descriptors that would put us in this epoch. For all intents and purposes, it could've taken place in present day minus the technology like tv's and cell phones. The way they spoke was modern, the way they dressed was modern, and the only thing putting them in that time period was the fact that we were told it took place in that time period. 

Another minor complaint I have is the pacing - we start of strong with Viv getting caught in a public riot on her way home, then her parents getting caught, then her committing this crime in an attempt to free them. All within the first 3-4 chapters. Then once she's placed in the government program, we slow down for most of the middle part of the book as we focus on Vivian's attempts to codebreak, then we pick back up again for the final battle at the end. There were some intense moments in the middle that helped with pacing, but I think the initial jump from basically starting a war to what feels like Violet going back to school gave me a bit of whiplash. Don't get me wrong - I very much enjoyed following Viv and her linguistic and draconic explorations, but the start feels very intense for a story that doesn't keep up that pace. 

I believe this is a series (the ending very much left the story in somewhat of a cliffhanger), and I would definitely like to continue once the next is released!

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins, & S. F. Williamson for the eARC! All opinions are my own.

Emerson moved to New York following the sudden and heartbreaking death of her mother, who was tragically caught in their house fire. 8 years later, she stumbles on a hidden library, in which she meets eclectic Ezekiel. Upon taking a book home, she appears that the books from this library aren't just your average reading material - but actual portals to the realms within. In one such novel is where Emerson finds her mother - who faked her death all those years ago to escape the Central Library. She also finds herself trapped in a love triangle - between her childhood love and the son of the Central Library's Head Librarian. Emerson must forge her own path to determine if her mother is actually the criminal the Central Library makes her out to be, or if they are using her as a scapegoat to cover up their own wrong doings. 

I think the premise of this is so interesting! How many of us have wished that we could transport ourselves to the fantastical worlds we read about? Well, Emerson gets to do just that! I also really liked the idea that there's a Central Library - in charge of what gets published and is accessible to the Guardians (essentially the portal or book jumpers) and the librarians (those who run the libraries). Are they really not publishing specific books for the safety of their guardians and librarians, or are there more nefarious reasons they're keeping them out of the public? That's for them to know, and Emerson to find out! 

I also think Spencer did a really good job describing the few realms that we visited with Emerson. We visited an Icy Tundra, a Woodland Fae realm, and even the Central Library itself - and her descriptions were like we were actually there. We are told that Emerson visited many different books and worlds to practice her ability to jump in and out of books, but I wish we got more on that. We instead focused on her relationship with her mentor - Adrien, who is son of the Head Librarian trying to discredit Emerson's mother. While I did really enjoy the budding relationship with Adrien, and then the little love triangle with her childhood love Silas, I think we focused a little too much on these relationships and how they represent each side or faction of the Library. Adrien is a loyal follower to his mother and the Central Library, whereas Silas was trained by Emerson's long lost mother and has actually been inside her banned books. I think the exploration of the 2 men and the "good vs evil" thing is fun and definitely something that needed to be explored in this book, but I think it was at a hinderance to the world-building. The kindle edition is less than 300 pages long so Spencer definitely had room to expand, and I'm hoping that she does this in the next 2 books as they appear to be almost 500 pages (according to their GR listings). 

All in all this was a very enjoyable read, and I'm excited to get back into this world and Emerson's story! Thank you to the author, Amelia Spencer, and to BookSirens for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own. 

Ava has fallen through a portal into the Unseelie Kingdom, where Ava comes to find out is her true birth home; having been born in the Court of Sorrows. Torin follows her, and upon his arrival comes to find that she has sprouted horns. Even though Ava is from the Unseelie Kingdom, she doesn't exactly get a warm welcome from the Unseelie Queen, Mab, and her dark soldiers. They hunt down Ava & Torin, accusing Ava of being a traitor and helping the Seelie King. If they have any hope of returning to Faerie, it's by staying together and getting as close as possible... if you get my drift.

Just like Frost, I read this via Graphic Audio and I'm glad I did because I most likely would've DNF'd if I read the eBook via KU. I thought Frost was a fun ride, but Ambrosia ditched everything that worked in Frost and replaced it with stuff that just... didn't. Where Frost was like a trashy reality TV dating show competition, Ambrosia is a fight or flight through the forest. But the pacing was kind of jarring. One moment they're exploring the forest trying to figure out a way back to Faerie, and the next they're immediately captured by Mab's forces. They escape, run away, and rinse and repeat. The slow moments were slow, and there was no intermediary speed before they're on the run and captured again. It was sometimes hard to make sense of what was going on as it was like we just had a slow moment and all of a sudden we're ramped up and back in the dungeon. The other pacing ick for me was that we would switch perspectives in the middle of some action, so it was kind of jarring to be in the middle of something then switch POV's.

Speaking of being captured, why was it so easy for Torin to be caught?? He's supposed to be a fae king, you'd think he'd have some sort of tactical training or something. I get that his magic was gone with his throne being destroyed back in Faerie, but this man had no survival skills. It kinda felt like he didn't have that much fight in him either.

I also wasn't a fan of Shalini's chapters. I get that we needed to see what was going on in Faerie while Ava & Torin weren't there, but her chapters were info dumpy (at least the first few). As a human who was basically on vacation in the fae realm before Ava and Torin disappeared, I don't see how it's possible she would know some of the history that she did and explained to the reader. After the exposition-y chapters were out of the way, they were a little easier to digest as they focused more on the story and present day political climate of Faerie. But I still found Shalini annoying.

I did like the twist about Torin's curse and who cast it; throwing a wrench in the whole good Seelie kingdom vs evil Unseelie kingdom war we've got goin on. But I could smell Ava's identity a mile away. Even from the first book I had a clue as to where she might've come from, and lo and behold I was right.

Just like in Frost, I think a lot of the shortcomings of this book come from the fact that the author is self published. This book could do with another round or 2 of edits from an editor, and I think that could've smoothed out some of the pain points. I don't think these are bad stories, just lacking in execution. I probably won't read another book by these authors (unless their other stories get picked up by Graphic Audio and I need a quick read), unless they get picked up by a publisher and hopefully that will mean their works will be a little more fleshed out.