luthereadingqueen's reviews
265 reviews

RTC

I'm so sad to give this book such a low rating when I was looking foward to it so much!

I think the main problem was that I was expecting something way different, when I read the synopsis I thought we would get a fictional war story with some love going on (that's how I pictured a Mulan retelling to be like) but instead we got all romance with a few minor battles that didn't get to wow me.

That was really dissapointing because it wasn't what I was looking for but once I got over that (100 pages before the ending), I actually kind of enjoyed the love story even though again it didn't blow my mind.

The romance was kind of sweet but for some reason I couldn't stop comparing them with my OTPs, there were a lot of things that my favorite couples would have never done to each other. I'm not going to say any spoilers but there's a scene that's almost the exact same as ACOMAF when Tamlin does something bad to Feyre

traps her on his house

but Mulan did not act as Feyre did and I couldn't deal with it.

Another thing that bother me was that for the first few pages Mulan was really powerful (she was throughout the novel) and everyone saw her as that but once Wolfgang discovers she's a girl, he starts trying to protect her like she couldn't do it herself and Mulan lets him, everytime that happened it would make me roll my eyes.

Mulan's reaction to Wolfgang telling her how he had unintentionally caused the death of a child was out of this world. I immediately freaked out when I read that a father had killed his child but Mulan instead of worrying about that, thought how that affected Wolfgang and how sad she was for HIM, like????

On the other hand, Wolfgang was okey but I didn't see the appealed, Steffan (his brother) was far more interesting and I'd read a book with him as the main character, he had a lot more depth and still a lot of growing to do so I think it would be interesting to see that.

Something that seemed off too was that we didn't get to see any other character unless they were neccesary to keep the plot moving. When they weren't needed, they would just magically disappear until the next time they had to do something. And now thinking back, I don't remember them having a single full conversation with anyone that wasn't each other.

Lastly, at halfpoint it started to deal a lot with God. I recieved this book as an e-arc a year ago and when I requested it, it didn't say it was a Christian book. Now, that I'm writing this review I can see that it is listed as one so that explains a lot but I would have liked to know before requesting it because I'm not really a religious person.

"Because I have a story I was meant to live. And not even you can unwrite it."

When I first saw this book I was so excited for it to come out because of that stunning cover and the fact that it is a Romanov's retelling. I have to admit I hardly knew the basics of what happened to the family so I was hoping to get more information through this book (which now I know wasn't the best idea). And when I got approved for an ARC, I couldn't have been happier.

"We are Romanovs. The bond of our hearts spans miles, memory and time."

This book is told from Anastasia's ("Nastya") point of view and in my opinion she was a quite great character, mainly because of her pranks and "misbehavior" which were amazing because they made me realise that she could get away with anything due to how quickly she could come up with a plan. Moreover, I really liked the dinamic between the family members and how everyone took care of each other when neccesary.

On the other hand, the main aspect of this books that prevents me from giving it 5 stars is the fact that the other characters felt very plain, they had a main characteristic and from that came all their attitudes and decisions, they did not have layers nor depth. We got to witness some backstories but they didn't feel real to me, it was as if I was just reading something that happened instead of actually feeling like I was there in that moment, which is what I look for when I read a book.

There were also other minor issues that took away from my enjoyment. First, there were smaller plot twists that didn't feel like they were because I was able to predict them, so I never actually got surprised by anything. Then, the autor also uses some Russian words to describe things or as nicknames that I couldn't understand since I don't speak the language, at first I looked them up but then it just got tedious so I just guessed what they meant by the context or acted as if they weren't there.

And lastly, the end was predictable, there was not a single moment were I feared something bad would happen to any of the characters. But it wasn't only that, it also felt unsatisfying because it ends on an open ending, unless it has a continuation but for the moment this book is a standalone and I'm not used to standalones ending like this lol.

"No one could outshout a revolution."

To end on a more happy note, what I did love throughout the book were the quotes and Nadine's writing style. The introduction to the book is incredible, so powerful that gets stuck in your mind for a while, at least that happened to me. I highlighted so many quotes that give the vibes of "just get up and do it", the three I wrote in this review are only my favorites.

Also, at the end we are told which things in the story were actually real and which ones were fiction or a stretched version of reality. I was positively surprised to see that because I wasn't expecting the author to let us into her creative journey the way she did and I really appreciate that.

You know I've said I usually don't like short stories? Well, this was one of the exceptions 😂 I adored the characters and didn't feel anything was rushed.

My favorite was definitely Hunter even though Randall was pretty great too. Hunter won a special place in my heart for the way he took care of Randall, he always made sure they were both on the same page and that Randall was as eager as him to do something.

On the other hand, Randall was so smart and knew exactly what he wanted even though he was a bit shy to ask for it. The best aspect about him was how he was such an amazing brother to the point I thought my heart was going to grow too big for my body ❤️.



I loved how although it's a fairly short book, we still got to know a lot from the guys' past (mainly Randall). It was all very interesting and it hooked me completely because we have an army man with a couple of problems due to that fact because it isn't easy to be in a war and an astrophysicist who had it rough in a town with closed minded people.

I hadn't payed attention that this book was written by two authors until now that I'm writing this review and I have to admit it was a bit obvious since both of the characters' points of view read very differently which wasn't a problem for me but it's a nice fact to comment 😂.

I would 100% recommend this book, it's so cute and the sex scenes are really hot! 😍 Besides, not everything is sex in this book, their relationship gets to be deeper than that which I loved.

Este libro me lo hicieron leer en la secundaria cuando tenía 14 años, no sé si lo habré leído o sólo repase algunas cosas para el examen :/ Si se me vienen algunas escenas a la memoria pero no tanto como para saber de qué trataba. Capaz lo vuelva a leer para saber si me gusta o no aunque no es una de mis prioridades por el momento...

3.5 stars

Agh I'm so not sure about my rating for this book!

Because on the one hand, the sci-fi aspect, the writing and the overall atmosphere were magnificent. I loved how we got to experience time travel, aliens and new technology in a distopian sociaty. It truly was incredible, I felt like I was watching a movie in my head. And moreover, it had so many little details that made the story seem a lot more real and deep. For instance, how people would react to the end of the world, what would happen to the kids and how hard it would be to trust someone.

Also, the characters and their friendship were so endearing to read about. I adored them and how much they cared about one another, that was a group that would have gone to the moon and back to make sure everyone was safe. I do have to say that my favorite character was our main character's best friend, Natalie. She was the definition of loyalty and intelligence.

If it had been for all these reasons, this book would have been a 5 stars for me but the downside is that it's heavily romantic. The romance was okay for me, it's not like I hated it but compared to the other things going on it seemed uninteresting.

So I would be hooked in everything that was happening and then a romantic scene would pop up and I lost interest, therefore it lower my enjoyment of this book overall. In my opinion, everything would have been so much better without the romance or if the romance would have been more developed because I didn't fully understand their chemestry.

Then another detail that bother me a tiny bit but that wasn't as important as the romance aspect was that this is one of those books where adults are useless. Since the first chapter they are the first ones to disappear, every single adult which was super weird when I was reading about it. However, luckily the teenagers did feel like they were able to protect themselves, it's not like they were just lucky to survive, which was a nice addition.

All in all, this book has a great atmosphere, so unique and that will get you hooked as soon as you start reading. However, there is also a romance that took too much space in the book for me and it ended up affecting my enjoyment of it.

Video review: https://youtu.be/YyOsf2xGnzk

Have you ever read those relationships that simply warm your heart and make you want to read about them nonstop?

That's exactly how I felt with Kin and Miranda. Just the sweetest, most heartfelt father and daughter relationship I've ever read. I've actually never read a book before where a father cared so much about his child that he would literally travel through time just to save their life and make sure they live a complete and happy one. Man, I'm almost crying just thinking about them. Kin is the love of my life and definitely one of my favorite characters of all time, I just can't stop thinking about him and how awesome he's as a father.

Moreover, all the time travelling aspects of this book were on point. I actually felt like I was there in two different times. And also, I was able to understand all the paradoxes that can be created by changing facts about the past, which I was so confused about before starting Here and Then and Now. All of it was extremely interesting to me, I just wanted more and more. Just when I thought sci-fi may not be the genre for me, this book comes to prove me how amazing the genre can be.

Saddly, there are two things that I actually didn't like. The first one being a love interest Kin had. I just didn't see the chemistry between

Penny and Kin

, from the beginning we were supposed to not want to be with her since we were reading from Kin's point of view but later I didn't see their relationship developing either. All the time I was rooting for him to

go back to Miranda and Heather even though she was going to die, for me they were his true family not Penny. That's one of the reasons why I didn't like her, I felt like she was in the middle of my babies being happy.

And the second one was that from time to time I would disconnect from the story. I don't actually know why, but there were some moments that dragged a bit for me and I wanted to skip some sentences because I wasn't interested in what was going on. Mainly when Markus was involved, I didn't like that side-character.

Now, the ending was spectacular. This book had so many twist that I actually didn't know how things were going to end up but when we got to it, it was exactly how it needed to end. Incredibly amazing and everything just made so much sense.

But again, I wish Kin didn't end up with Penny.

All in all, this book was fantastic for the most part. The time travelling aspect as well as our main character were one of the best things I've read for a while. However, there were some moments were I couldn't get into the story and there's also a love interest who I didn't like, that's the reason why I didn't give this book a full 5 stars.

2.5 stars
TW: Rape, suicide, PTSD, a lot of blood



Not One of Us had a couple of amazing stories that even after finishing this book a couple of days ago I can still remember vividly what happened and the important messages those stories tried to portrait and succeeded at it. But unfortunately those stories weren't enough for me to love this anthology as a whole because there were a lot more stories that I didn't like, whether it was because of the characters or the pacing.

A lot of the stories I didn't like weren't unique enough for me to distinguish between them and that's not a good sign. Moreover, there were a few stories that I had to DNF because they were too gory for me, I just can't deal with people cutting open dead bodies even if those bodies aren't human.

On the other hand, I did like how the majority of the stories were amazingly diverse. These stories are written by a lot of different authors and that really showed in the stories, we got main characters from all over the world and with different sexualities. I adored to see diverse characters in a story where that diversity wasn't the main focus, it was just another characteristic of the person.



I would definitely recommend this book to people who love reading about aliens but not so much to people who are only starting to get into this genre because, from my experience being used to reading contemporary or low fantasy, starting with this book can be quite shocking and confusing at times.

---- RATINGS FOR EACH STORY ----

*Touring with the Alien - Carolyn Ives Gilman: 2 stars
*Laws of Survival - Nancy Kress: 3 stars
*At Play in the Fields - Steve Rasnic Tem: 3.5 stars
*The Ants of Flanders - Robert Reed: 2 stars
*Taking Care of God - Cixin Liu: 4 stars
*Water Scorpions - Rich Larson: DNF
*The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill - Kelly Robson: 5 stars (TW: Sexual assault, PTSD, suicide)
*Men Are Trouble - James Patrick Kelly: 1 stars (TW: Suicide)
*They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass - Alaya Dawn Johnson: 3 stars
*Bits - Naomi Kritzer: 5 stars
*And Never Mind the Watching Ones - Keffy R. M. Kehrli: DNF
*Dark Heaven - Gregory Benford: 2 stars
*Nine-Tenths of the Law - Molly Tanzer: 2.5 stars
*Five Stages of Grief After the Alien Invasion: 3.5 stars
*Time of the Snake - A. M. Dellamonica: 4 stars
*The Fear Gun - Judith Berman: 3 stars
*Tendeléo's Story - Ian McDonald: 2 stars
*The Choice - Paul Mcauley: 3 stars
*Passage of Earth - Michael Swanwick: DNF
*Reborn - Ken Liu: 3.5 stars
*Story of Your Life - Ted Chiang: 3 stars