katiesbookmarks's reviews
466 reviews

I enjoyed this debut novel by Amber Chen! The story follows Aihui Ying who, after catching her father's assassin in the act, dresses up as her younger brother and journeys into the heart of the kingdom to join the Engineers Guild and ferret out the one who sent the assassin.

I thought Ying was a great YA protagonist, though I did find the budding “romance” between her and Ye-Yang not compelling in the least. That said, I was pleased with the ending when she chose herself and the life she wants rather than falling for his platitudes. 

I enjoyed the guild scenes the most, especially the ones where the candidates were taking part in the trials and we actually got to see some steampunk engineering at play. Those were super fun scenes and the side characters were enjoyable.

I listened to the audiobook and Jen Zhao did a great job with the narration. It really helped as I learned to pronounce some of the character names and other cultural words.

I think I will continue this series and find out what’s in store for the MC next! An aside: I have the Illumicrate edition and it’s one of the most beautiful editions on my shelf. I love the illustrated endpapers by jhocaaa on instagram!

I really enjoyed this book. Ashley Poston does a great job weaving in fantastical elements in her stories and this was no exception. I related so much to the main character, but often felt frustrated with her and the main male character - I wish they would have just talked to each other about their feelings more! I also thought the romance was pretty rushed. But I got the warm fuzzies and loved the way the author talked about books and friendship throughout this story. 

This was a page turner for sure! All the while I never quite figured out who the killer was and I was truly surprised when the whole thing unfolded. 

Leaving off a star because I did the audiobook and while the narrator did a great job with the actual story, the accent was so distracting. The main character is meant to be American, but she sounds Australian at best. If you’re going to read this, I’d recommend skipping the audio version.

3.5⭐️ this was fine. Honestly not enough intrigue for me! No major action until the last third and I spent much of this book waiting for something to happen. That said, I enjoyed the setting and many of the characters. The romance felt too rushed and I didn’t really find any chemistry between the two leads. I would read more by this author though, this one in particular was just missing something for me. 

DNF at 10% 🫠

This one just wasn’t for me. At first I found the MC amusing, but the tone and style of writing became grating, and I just couldn’t wrap my head around the world building. It was too much modern dialogue and language for what appeared to be a fantasy setting, but then I could have missed where this story was actually taking place, because it was very much blink-and-you-miss-it scene setting. 

Queen B is an installment in the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven universe that follows Anne Boleyn and her ladies as they navigate the politics of court and their coven. I listened to the audiobook which was well read by Nicola Coughlan! 

This was a solid read for me, though it wasn’t quite what I expected. I wished it was longer - many chapters felt too short and the villains didn’t seem fully fleshed. The love story subplot also felt incomplete and flat to me, though I do think the author let the reader infer a lot of the details for themselves. 

I would recommend this to readers who have been wanting something witchy or who enjoy a historical fiction read with magic woven in! If you’ve enjoyed Dawson’s other books in this series, I think you’ll enjoy this installment even though it doesn’t feature the characters we’ve gotten to know over the course of the other books. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for a fair and honest review!

I throughly enjoyed the audiobook production of this regency-era cozy murder mystery. The story is about the death of a vicar’s wife in a small English village and the air of mystery and suspicion that takes over the town. The magistrate’s wife, Emma Knightley can’t help herself as she begins to investigate the crime. 

 The cast of characters was great - our main character Emma was a smart, witty character who has a good head on her shoulders and I loved seeing her work out the puzzle of this small town murder. 

Polly Lane does a great job narrating this book. The pacing is well done and I was entertained throughout and never found myself guessing at which character we were hearing from - Lane uses a different tone and even accent work for each character which made it easy to follow. The only quibble I have was that the voice she uses for George Knightley, our heroine’s husband, was really monotone. He is often described as witty and there are these lovely banter-filled exchanges between he and Emma, but they’re read in such a dry and flat way that it just fell short for me. Otherwise, I really loved how Lane was able to distinguish the different voices. 

The plot kept me guessing right until the end and I only started to unravel the true identity of the murder when I was at about 80%, so I enjoyed a mystery that didn’t seem obvious right away! 

I would recommend this book to any audiobook lovers who enjoy Bridgerton, regency romances, and Agatha Christie mystery novels.