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ravensandpages's reviews
565 reviews
Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss! Volume 1 by Nmura
4.5
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Netgalley and Kodansha!
I was enamored with this sweet, silly romance from start to finish. When Hashimoto realizes his online friend in his current favorite video game is actually his hardass boss, he expects to lose his job and die from embarrassment. Instead, their relationship softens into something real as they realize they've been closer than they realized the entire time.
I adored the characters here and the humor and miscommunication had me in stitches. Despite the Vol 1 marker, their story wraps up very nicely in this first volume, and I'm glad or I might have been able to handle the wait. If there are any continuations, though, I will be ecstatic.
I was enamored with this sweet, silly romance from start to finish. When Hashimoto realizes his online friend in his current favorite video game is actually his hardass boss, he expects to lose his job and die from embarrassment. Instead, their relationship softens into something real as they realize they've been closer than they realized the entire time.
I adored the characters here and the humor and miscommunication had me in stitches. Despite the Vol 1 marker, their story wraps up very nicely in this first volume, and I'm glad or I might have been able to handle the wait. If there are any continuations, though, I will be ecstatic.
Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
3.0
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and Del Rey!
LADY MACBETH was one of my most anticipated reads this year and has turned into one of my most conflicting reads ever. I have a special attachment to the Lady since I was her in a play once, and Macbeth is tied for Twelfth Night as my favorite Shakespeare play, so I have to admit I got up and screamed when I saw Ava Reid was writing a Lady Macbeth reimagining and then did it again when I was accepted for the ARC.
I'll start with the good things first, because to be clear, I do not regret reading this book. The writing style was beyond gorgeous and I was spellbound by the craft put in at the sentence level. Every time I had to put the book down, it only took a line for me to be back into the bleak, gothic setting, and I know I will be returning to study this style. I also loved the linguistic care paid attention to the shifting names and rejection of allowing one language to dominate the landscape. It was naturally done and I was never confused by it, so it remained one of my favorite things about the book once I'd finished.
Character wise, I enjoyed Roscille and Lisander the most as characters who are regularly divorced from humanity, a theme that has always been important to me; I think the characterization was strong and Macbeth loomed larger than life in a way I liked reading about. But I think I enjoyed Roscille more as her own character. Comparing her to the Lady Macbeth many know and love is where my disappointment begins to creep in.
As I've mentioned, Lady Macbeth is an important character to me, but I also love ruthless, cunning, conniving women. When I heard reimagining, I was excited to see what had been crafted of her personality and backstory. For such an iconic character, there is little established about her; there was an endless possibility of directions to choose, and while I liked what was offered, I liked less that it was what was offered for her specifically.
If you're attached to the bloodthirsty middle-aged woman who shamed her husband for weakness, you will not find her here, and I'm not sure you will even find the start of her here. In her place, we are offered Roscille, a 17-year-old French bride sold off to the hulking, violent Macbeth. Her witch-touched nature had created a reputation of inducing madness, and so she arrives veiled and adrift with a plan to keep herself from the marriage bed as long as she is able. She has been trained to be clever and at first succeeds at her ploys easily, but has to work harder to arrange the pieces as she wishes as Macbeth's madness grows and she meets unexpected roadblocks.
I want to stress that I love Roscille as Roscille. But offered as a spin on Lady Macbeth, she and her worldview fall flat. I found myself craving nuance or at least a small challenge to Roscille's intense xenophobia and prejudice against Scottish men (I would absolutely not recommend this one to Scottish readers), but as it was, the gender politics felt flatly crafted and gave an unfortunate one-dimensional view of most of the male characters surrounding Roscille. I think this also lended to the disappointing declawing of one of my favorite ambitious female characters; Roscille is passively reacting to a world that was historically sexist, but even in sexist societies women have their own power and value to wield.
In the end, I think I just don't agree with what seems to be the foundation for this reimagining, which is that women being portrayed as villainous is a fault of men around her finding her mad and uncontrollable. This feels less of a roadmap for a young Lady Macbeth sharpening her teeth and more like a defensive defanging, which I don't think was fully sold to me. If this had been an original story with the names changed, I probably would have been in love with it. But as it stands, I adore evil, ruthless female characters, and though I can admit most of my disappointment is probably self-inflicted for entering this book with too many expectations, this did not end up being the Lady Macbeth I've adored for much of my life but instead a sweeping, enchantingly painted portrait with a disappointing subject.
If you are a fan of beautiful prose and aren't quite as attached to Lady Macbeth as me, I would still recommend this book, even just to hear what you think about it.
LADY MACBETH was one of my most anticipated reads this year and has turned into one of my most conflicting reads ever. I have a special attachment to the Lady since I was her in a play once, and Macbeth is tied for Twelfth Night as my favorite Shakespeare play, so I have to admit I got up and screamed when I saw Ava Reid was writing a Lady Macbeth reimagining and then did it again when I was accepted for the ARC.
I'll start with the good things first, because to be clear, I do not regret reading this book. The writing style was beyond gorgeous and I was spellbound by the craft put in at the sentence level. Every time I had to put the book down, it only took a line for me to be back into the bleak, gothic setting, and I know I will be returning to study this style. I also loved the linguistic care paid attention to the shifting names and rejection of allowing one language to dominate the landscape. It was naturally done and I was never confused by it, so it remained one of my favorite things about the book once I'd finished.
Character wise, I enjoyed Roscille and Lisander the most as characters who are regularly divorced from humanity, a theme that has always been important to me; I think the characterization was strong and Macbeth loomed larger than life in a way I liked reading about. But I think I enjoyed Roscille more as her own character. Comparing her to the Lady Macbeth many know and love is where my disappointment begins to creep in.
As I've mentioned, Lady Macbeth is an important character to me, but I also love ruthless, cunning, conniving women. When I heard reimagining, I was excited to see what had been crafted of her personality and backstory. For such an iconic character, there is little established about her; there was an endless possibility of directions to choose, and while I liked what was offered, I liked less that it was what was offered for her specifically.
If you're attached to the bloodthirsty middle-aged woman who shamed her husband for weakness, you will not find her here, and I'm not sure you will even find the start of her here. In her place, we are offered Roscille, a 17-year-old French bride sold off to the hulking, violent Macbeth. Her witch-touched nature had created a reputation of inducing madness, and so she arrives veiled and adrift with a plan to keep herself from the marriage bed as long as she is able. She has been trained to be clever and at first succeeds at her ploys easily, but has to work harder to arrange the pieces as she wishes as Macbeth's madness grows and she meets unexpected roadblocks.
I want to stress that I love Roscille as Roscille. But offered as a spin on Lady Macbeth, she and her worldview fall flat. I found myself craving nuance or at least a small challenge to Roscille's intense xenophobia and prejudice against Scottish men (I would absolutely not recommend this one to Scottish readers), but as it was, the gender politics felt flatly crafted and gave an unfortunate one-dimensional view of most of the male characters surrounding Roscille. I think this also lended to the disappointing declawing of one of my favorite ambitious female characters; Roscille is passively reacting to a world that was historically sexist, but even in sexist societies women have their own power and value to wield.
In the end, I think I just don't agree with what seems to be the foundation for this reimagining, which is that women being portrayed as villainous is a fault of men around her finding her mad and uncontrollable. This feels less of a roadmap for a young Lady Macbeth sharpening her teeth and more like a defensive defanging, which I don't think was fully sold to me. If this had been an original story with the names changed, I probably would have been in love with it. But as it stands, I adore evil, ruthless female characters, and though I can admit most of my disappointment is probably self-inflicted for entering this book with too many expectations, this did not end up being the Lady Macbeth I've adored for much of my life but instead a sweeping, enchantingly painted portrait with a disappointing subject.
If you are a fan of beautiful prose and aren't quite as attached to Lady Macbeth as me, I would still recommend this book, even just to hear what you think about it.
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
4.0
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so, so much, Tor!
Thornhedge was an enchanting retelling of Sleeping Beauty with a heartwarming uniqueness that has earned T. Kingfisher's books a well-deserved place among my favorites. The delightfully short novella follows the familiar story of a princess sleeping in a tower and the fairy who put her there, but turns everything on its head, giving readers the preciously polite Toadling, the unsettling Fayette, and the knight Halim who follows old stories to find much more than he expected.
I would recommend this book if you're already a fan of T. Kingfisher and looking for spins on old tales much like Nettle & Bone or the forthcoming A Sorceress Comes to Call, or if you're looking for a quick sample of her charming characters and fantasy style! I think I have fallen into the pitfall of having 5-star standout favorites already that are very hard not to compare to, but I did still very much enjoy this read. It has most things I already love about Kingfisher's writing in a very short tale, but I think I'll usually (and probably greedily) love the longer ones best. I love staying in her worlds.
Thornhedge was an enchanting retelling of Sleeping Beauty with a heartwarming uniqueness that has earned T. Kingfisher's books a well-deserved place among my favorites. The delightfully short novella follows the familiar story of a princess sleeping in a tower and the fairy who put her there, but turns everything on its head, giving readers the preciously polite Toadling, the unsettling Fayette, and the knight Halim who follows old stories to find much more than he expected.
I would recommend this book if you're already a fan of T. Kingfisher and looking for spins on old tales much like Nettle & Bone or the forthcoming A Sorceress Comes to Call, or if you're looking for a quick sample of her charming characters and fantasy style! I think I have fallen into the pitfall of having 5-star standout favorites already that are very hard not to compare to, but I did still very much enjoy this read. It has most things I already love about Kingfisher's writing in a very short tale, but I think I'll usually (and probably greedily) love the longer ones best. I love staying in her worlds.