ashleerosereads's reviews
77 reviews

Ava, a fae who was abandoned as a baby and raised in the human world, comes home on her birthday to find her human boyfriend in bed with another woman. Ava is heartbroken until she is invited to participate in the Seelie King's competition for a bride. Ava is whisked away to Faerie (yes their realm is literally called Faerie), where her and the King make a deal - if she wins, he will pay her $50 million to marry him for a year. Then they can divorce and go back to their normal lives. The catch? If Ava loses, she has more to lose than just the throne and $50 million. She may just also lose her life. 

I read this on Graphic Audio, and I'm glad I did because I don't think I would've liked it as much if I read the eBook edition on KU. All in all it was pretty decent, although the pacing could be a little slow during the times that Ava wasn't actively participating in the tournament. As for the tournament, I thought the trials were kind of stupid and felt disjointed from each other. WDYM that they have to race, and the top 6 then go on 1 on 1 dates with the king before a final fencing tournament? I wish Crawford had explained more historical significance for each of the trials - I think maybe something like what they were originally and how they have now been watered down over time to not be as barbaric as what they symbolize. Like the race could be symbolic of how the women participating in the tournament were dropped on one side of the forest and had to survive the trek through it back to the castle. They had to survive against the wildlife, weather, and other contestants to race back to the castle, and the first 6 to reach the castle got to move on. As they are right now, I didn't quite understand the significance of them and why the fae courts of centuries past thought these specific trials were needed to choose the next queen. As other reviewers said - it's basically The Bachelor but make it fae and slightly more dangerous. Which is basically how it's described in the books, but it bugs me that there's not more clear historical context beyond trashy TV.

As for the romance between Ava & Torin, the tropes in the blurb describe it as a slow burn, enemies to lovers but the slow burn just doesn't hit. It's not quite insta love because there's definitely a little bit of enemies to lovers, but it's mostly Ava thinking the king is hot and the king being like "ugh just know that I can't love you." I also 100% saw the twist coming, so I don't think it hit as hard emotionally as it was intended. 

I enjoyed it for the most part, especially since it was on Graphic Audio so I could listen while I did random time waster activities around my apartment. If you enjoy trashy, reality tv style romances then this would be right up your alley. I think the issues I had with the plot and pacing stem mostly from the fact that this was self published. I think the story could benefit from another round or 2 of edits from an editor, as I did enjoy the story and it was just some of the execution that felt a bit lackluster. 

This is such a whimsical take on the whole heaven vs hell debacle. We follow the celestial warrior Gladriel, who is on a routine mission with her squad mates when something goes horribly wrong for one of their friends. Gladriel enacts revenge even though the Almighty explicitly forbade her to do so, and casts her down as a fallen angel. She is then enrolled at Morningstar Academy, at which she is to be re-educated to making the lives of humans hell on earth. Her and her classmates are then sent on a mission to figure out why hundreds if not thousands of humans have disappeared on earth. Gladriel realizes this is the start of an ancient prophecy detailing the eradication of not only humanity itself, but also second heaven where Morningstar Academy and all the fallen angels are located. Will her and her classmates be able to stop this impending doom?

This is so cute! With the kindle edition being only 200-something pages, this is the perfect read if you want something lighthearted and full of banter. Lee did a really good job of world building, with her unique twist on heaven and there being multiple levels or floors of it - with the Almighty and his angels on the 3rd level, and the fallen angels and Morningstar Academy on the 2nd level. We were not introduced to the 1st level, but I hope that is intentional and gets explored more in the sequels. The descriptions and exploration of Morningstar Academy are also lacking, but again I hope that is intentional and we spend more time at the academy in the next couple books as Gladriel works out the prophecy.

I really liked how the faults of humanity (ie depression, anger, anxiety, etc) were just the physical manifestations of the demons that were feasting on them. However, I feel like that leads to some grey areas as a major plot point revolves around warring humans and devolves into a good vs evil sort of thing. Mainly the deaths of the antagonistic humans - Gladriel and co knew they were being controlled by demons, but still were somewhat relieved that the attack was over and didn’t seem remorseful at this loss of life. Only relief that the people that were originally being attacked were ok. Again, hoping that this is explored a little more in the sequels as the attack was done at Satan’s behest, so the humans were more or less coerced into doing his bidding.


All in all, super fun twist on God and his angels, really curious to see how it’s all fleshed out as the series progresses.

Thank you so much to L. R. W. Lee for the eARC! Can’t wait to keep going!

First off, I loved the sisterly relationship between Foxx and Iris. As an older sister myself (coincidentally to a younger sister lol), it was really easy to see myself in Foxxglove’s shoes and like her, would do anything in my power to protect my younger sister. I really liked that while they might fight, disagree, and bicker - they always had each others’ backs. By far the best and most well fleshed out relationship in the novel. While this was my fave, Pietro did a really good job fleshing out the rest of the side characters and their relationships with the sisters. They were intentional, and helped flesh out the sisters’ journey and worldviews. 

Her world building is also incredible - very well thought out lands with different biomes and unique plants and animals inhabiting each. I felt like I had a solid grasp of the land, vegetation, climate, and colors of everywhere our duo traveled. However, I also think that the mixture of very fantastical creatures and normal animals felt a bit off. The only mention of cats and dogs were used in idioms, fish were mentioned as food, and horses mentioned since they could ride them. There was also a scene with very specific species of parrots. However, it was much more common for our protagonists to see and/or interact with the fantastical species unique to Arkaemor. “Real life” animals were used more as descriptors of other people or things, and they very rarely came in contact with them besides in specific scenes where said animals were integral to the scene (mainly horses, parrots, and the occasional fish). I felt like this imbalance pulled me out of the reading, as Pietro also had a habit of introducing the new creatures by name, so I always had a moment of “what the heck creature is that I’ve never heard of it” before we got any sort of description. More often than not it took me out of the reading, then I’d be confused when a “real life” animal was used as a descriptor because it seemed they didn’t exist in this world since we almost never came in contact with them. I think if Pietro had stuck with just the fantastical animals and found different phrases as workarounds for the descriptions she was trying to portray, or just make “real” animals more commonplace in this world then it wouldn’t have been so jarring. 

As far as her descriptors go, I do think Pietro’s writing leans a little into the purple prose. A little will definitely help set the scene, or describe the setting or characters. But almost every single paragraph felt like she was over describing what was happening. The reading became a bit of drag because of this, which sucked because I really like her plot building, character development, and overall story. The kindle edition is almost 600 pages and I genuinely believe this story could’ve been told in closer to 400 if we trimmed a little bit of the fat. There’s nothing inherently wrong with purple prose, I’m just not a fan as I feel as it takes away from the meat of the story. However, If you like that kind of overly descriptive writing, then this would be right up your alley. For this reason alone I don’t think I’ll be continuing with the series as my TBR is too long as it is to add a mid-level series. If I have the time, or if I read a snippet and it seems like the flowery writing has toned down then I’d love to pick up the sequel - as I genuinely loved the story and characters. 

One last thing that was a little irksome was that this was primarily told in 3rd person limited from Foxx’s and Iris’s POV. I think sometimes we would randomly get a couple thoughts from other side characters, and it took a sec to distinguish that it wasnt the sisters’ interpretation of these characters, but a 3rd person omniscient leaning POV. This happened only a handful of times, but I think if we were going to tell this story from multiple POV’s, it would’ve been easier to separate them by chapter and explicitly stating whose POV we’re following at that time as the random changing was sort of hard to follow at times.

I also want to say that I did not see some of those twists coming in the last 25ish % of the book - you got me there! 

I think this a super interesting story with very well done characters that a lot of people will enjoy, it just wasn’t quite my cup of tea. 

Thank you to Jessica Pietro, Vellichor and More publishing, and BookSirens for the eARC!

I thought the premise of this book was interesting, and I thought that focuses on a prominent black family in the early 1900's Chicago would be unique as I haven't seen this premise before. I think Marquis's writing is well done, but as far as plot goes it was a bit repetitive. All 4 women want someone unobtainable in some way shape or form, and they are all trying to figure out if it's possible to be with that man. They were all essentially 4 sides of the same coin. Now this isn't to say that I didn't enjoy reading this book, but there wasn't enough to make me want to continue the series. However, since I did like Marquis's writing style, I would definitely give another book a chance outside of this series. 

I also wish we got more on father Davenport! He was a freed slave who went from nothing to building a whole automobile empire - I think getting more history from him, and interactions between him and the Davenport women, would've done wonders in rounding out the story. Instead, he only shows up a handful of times, and is cemented in his horse and buggy ways and refuses to change with the times. It felt very counterintuitive for his character. Granted, I know nothing about C.R. Patterson who this story is loosely based on, so maybe he was the same way? But for someone to work so hard to get to where he's at, it felt almost like he was giving up on his empire for the sake of being a hinderance for Helen and her brother. 

Outside of boy problems, I did like the glimpses of racism, coloroism, and the mixed-race experience of the early 1900's upper class, but we didn't delve too deeply into them which I think was a hinderance. This was mostly a historical romance - which in it of itself isn't a problem, but since the protagonists are all black women in high society in a time where black people weren't high society, I think we missed the mark since these topics were introduced but only at a very surface level. 

All in all I enjoyed the writing and the romance was definitely written well and was enjoyable. But there was just a little <i> something </i> lacking and I wish we explored a little more of what I mentioned above. 

Thank you to Krystal Marquis, Penguin Group, & NetGalley for the eARC!

In this world, humans have the ability to runebond, or basically have a mental connection with a single type of animals. People can also have an affinity for plants, and in that case they are able to grow plants at will. Farren is an avis just like her father; which is someone who can runebond with birds. After her brother, Desmond, is attacked and almost killed by a gryphon, their father is summoned to the palace to help train the Queen's gryphons in Alidonia. Farren ends up going in his place, even though she is deathly afraid of them after what one did to her brother. Farren has six weeks to figure out what to do with these gryphons before they are paraded around in public, putting the people of Alidonia at risk. Can she figure out how to stop the gryphon program before more people are hurt?

I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this! If you are a fan of magical animals and telepathic bonds with said animals (very reminiscent of Violet and Tairn/Andarna in Fourth Wing) then this will be right up your alley. I also liked how different animals had varying levels of intelligence through the bond - ie small birds like sparrows could talk in simple phrases and images, more intelligent birds like hawks could talk in more complex sentences with more nuanced emotions, and the Gryphons hav human level intelligence and emotions and can have full on conversations. We only got the POV of the birds through Farren as this story is told solely through her, but I wish we saw this theme explored with other people and their runebonds with different species. I hope we either get a multi POV in the next book(s), or at least Farren's friends explaining more how their runebonds work with the varying levels of intelligence with their species of animal, and more on the runebonds people have with plants. I think Burnett did a good job introducing the runebond idea with Farren, but it could be explored so much more with more POV's or just hearing about the experiences of other people and their unique runebonds. We got a little bit of that with Isander, and I hope this is explored more in the sequels.

I also think the characters are really well written - they're all multi-faceted and complex, and we are able to get attached to all of them and care about their character arcs. I liked all of the characters, however I did sense the twist with Isander coming. That is one of my only qualms about the characters - I feel like it was easy to sense that he isn't all that he appears to be as Cato is wary of him and tells Camilla to avoid him. Besides that, Scipio was so annoying and I get that he is supposed to be a bully but his one insult, "bumpkin", doesn't really fit the vibes of a fantasy IMO, and also felt like a lazy insult. Besides them, I really liked everyone else and their progressions.

I really liked the world building and the magic system, and the character development was really well done - especially for Farren. This is a solid start to what I hope to be a great fantasy series!

Thank you to E. A. Burnett, Talon & Ink Press, and BookSirens for the eARC!

As an epic fantasy, this is easily 5 stars. GRRM has an incredible way of world building and character building, and it’s insane to see a book with such rich history (like already fleshed out centuries worth of history). And reading this after having seen the entirety of the HBO show, it’s incredible just how much there is in these books, that doesn’t get touched upon in the show (which should’ve been obvious to me, book to film/tv never fully encompasses the written page). But DAMN, I loved his writing, his world building, his characters, the kingdom, and everything in between. I will most definitely be finishing this series, and anything else he has in the Song of Ice and Fire universe.

The reason I give this 4.5 stars is solely the way he writes women. Maybe this vulgar way of portraying and brutalizing women was more common in the sci fi / fantasy genre back in the 90’s when this was published, but as a mid 20 yr old feminist, this left a bad taste in my mouth. Women were overly sexualized, and the fact that ALL of our young female protagonists (obvi besides Caitlyn) are under 18 is high key pedophilic, especially with the way GRRM sexualizes women 😬 I personally don’t really see the need to sexualize them in the way that he does as it doesn’t drive the plot, and it felt like he was using brutality as an excuse to be overtly sexual. All in all this left a bad taste in my mouth.

Besides that, I greatly enjoyed the series starter and I’m glad I finally started it after watching the show as well as seasons 1&2 of HOTD.

Seventeen-year-old Nell feels trapped in her hometown of Clawson, NY. She is also trapped in a sort-of love triangle between her longtime boyfriend, Cole, and their longtime best friend, Stevie B. When their school admits a new girl, beautiful Charlotte, Nell is faced with potentially losing Cole for the first time in their entire relationship. They learn that Charlotte is actually from the future, and one if them is needed to travel with her back to the future to save their entire future. 

This was definitely more hard hitting than I anticipated it to be! For a YA Speculative Fiction, I was expecting to lean more in to the Sci-Fi of it all (and don't get me wrong that is definitely well explored), but I wasn't expecting the relationships to be so raw and relatable. I felt myself yearning for the love that Nell & Cole have for each other, but also for the love that Stevie B has for Nell. It was very refreshing to see these relationships portrayed so healthily for high schoolers - so full of love for each other and the need to protect each other. I'm tearing up as I write this - just like I teared up as I read this. These characters and their story are definitely going to stick with me for a while, and I could honestly see myself re-reading this again in the future (I really don't like re-reading things if that is any indication as to how much I liked this story). 

I also think the Sci-Fi elements were explained in a way that made you understand the science behind the time travel, but not too technical to the point where you needed prior knowledge of Quantum Physics to understand what was happening.

My only qualm is that I'm kind of confused as to why they only have a short time for Cole to go back to the future, if they're time travelers then why can't they just go back farther before Finn passes? Same for Levi, if he got trapped in the future for a year and his brother died, why couldn't they just go back to before his brother died? I don't think this was explained very well, and it felt like whenever you traveled back or forward that it was the same day and time and the only thing that would change are the years; but everything is happening concurrently? I wish this was explained a little better, like maybe since the time changes so quickly they've only gotten it down to changing the years, and not exact enough to go by date/time? I get that this added a sense of urgency, but being able to time travel and "running out of time" feels paradoxical.

 

Thank you to K. J. Reilly, Nancy Paulsen Books, & NetGalley for the eARC!

This is a queer retelling of a Chinese myth with the same name, but I had not heard of the legend prior to reading this story. I didn't even realize it was supposed to be a retelling until after I had finished, so I don't think not knowing the source material was a detriment at all. I also don't read a lot of Chinese fantasy, so it was also pretty cool being able to read about some Chinese traditions alongside a famous legend. I also really liked the spirit guardian idea. 

I think the relationship between Zhen and Prince Xian is pretty cute, albeit I agree with other reviews that it didn't take much for them to fall in love. There was some physical attraction, but I feel like it was too quick. We didn't get a lot of moments where they could just coexist and learn more about each other. It was mostly Zhen waiting on Prince Xian, them thinking the other was cute, then they slept together. This wasn't a deal breaker for me, it was cute but not much more than that. 

If you like cute/fluffy M|M romance then you'll like this! 
Thank you to Sher Lee, HarperCollins Publishing, & NetGalley for the eARC!