wardenred's reviews
836 reviews

This is a rather predictable romance where a very serious and proper and buttoned up boss ends up bringing his younger manic pixie dream boy employee as a fake date to his ex’s wedding. And then of course they fall in love. Or rather, admit they’re in love and happily carry on.

Note that when I say the romance is predictable, I don’t mean anything bad by it. It’s a solid book that hits all the right beats at all the right times. The writing is humorous, with lots of giggle-inducing banter. What the plot lacks in twists of any sort, it makes up for with some truly hilarious and occasionally earnest scenes. I would maybe appreciate a bit more depth about the main characters and the conflict between them, but that would possibly end up making this a whole different book. The whole point of this one, I feel, is that it’s just so relaxing and ultimately low-stakes. A very nice romance novel for when you’re after some sweet mindless fun. The only thing I legitimately can complain about is some questionable language in one of the spicy scenes—nothing bad or offensive, simply on the awkward side.

Clearly time to execute my “if it doesn’t grab me at all by ~25%, it’s over for us“ rule, because it doesn’t grab me at all.

I’ve actually tried picking this book up before and balked at the prologue because it’s just so dark, but a friend who loves the series swore that what comes after it makes it worth it. Alas, tastes differ. The main story definitely had components that I usually like, such as religious trauma and trying to adjust to college living and weird “is it in my head or is it real?“ stuff. But I couldn’t really vibe with the execution. The best way I can describe my impression is that the things I feel should be handled subtly were over the top, and the things I’d like the narrative to linger on were glossed over

Also, I’m half-certain that the dark, dark prologue wasn’t necessary at all because seems like all it did was spoil the big reveal early on (yes,I’ve taken a glance at the last couple of chapters and the big reveal there is like… exactly what I thought it would be the moment the story transitioned from the prologue to the MC introduction). 

I love classic World of Darkness, especially the VtM facet of it, even if I’m not the biggest fan of where the latest edition took the metaplot. So this book was on my radar ever since it was out, and I’m glad I’ve read it. It was a great collection of bedtime stories for my tastes.

The first of the three novellas is, I feel, the weakest even though generally I enjoyed Genevieve Gornichec’s writing. Actually, I think if it was a standalone, non-WoD-related vampire story, I would have liked it more, though there are details I still wouldn’t have appreciated much, such as literally every feminine woman being a terrible mean girl worthy of death, or the kinda heavy-handed way the big twist was handled. But overall, it was a rather interesting and thought-provoking take on a new adult experience with college, anxiety, and struggling to find a purpose. It could be very well supported by the specific VtM brand of vampires, too, but alas, the way the author used the setting just didn’t do it for me. Also, there were some rather crude blunders in terms of how vampires function.

Cassandra Khaw’s contribution was considerably more mature, way more canon-compliant, an honestly a delight. This is why you don’t try to fuck with the Ventrue! I quite enjoyed this dark story of a tech bro thinking he could get everything he wanted and pay next to no price, then getting stuck in a nightmare. The story’s take on the sheer bureaucracy of being a vampire was so interesting, and I feel like it delved really well into some of the most personal horror-inducing aspects of the Ventrue existence. Unlike the previous story, this one fits the setting really well and couldn’t exist outside of it.

Finally, Caitlin Starling’s addition to this collection of novellas was easily my favorite. I love it when quiet horror invades the safest, coziest spaces, and the vampire-ran commune for people to just come and live there and maybe make art when they have nowhere else to go? A perfect, stellar example of that, 10/10. I also liked the main character’s attempts at being an ethical monster and the way the narrative questioned if it was even an achievable goal in the first place. The high-humantiy mental gymnastics have always been a super fun part of VtM for me when done right, and this story definitely does it right. Also, despite the small size, it really creates a strong sense of setting with lots of political undercurrent—I wouldn’t mind playing in a chronicle set there. It even made me take interest in some of the more V5-specific elements of this world, even though, like I’ve said already, I’m not a huge fan of those (and really still mentally stuck in V20).

A really fun read, just as expected! Much like with the rest of the series, I absolutely lived for the banter. So many utterly hilarious moments an quotable lines! It took me a little while to start actually shipping the main couple, but I was entertained by their interactions straight from first disastrous meet cute. 

As for the reasons I didn’t get invested in the main couple right away, I think they’re twofold. First, Eve wasn’t very easy for me to connect with. I empathized with her inability to commit to a career path and I was definitely mad at her parents for how they handled this. Why couldn’t they suggest therapy to get to the root of her troubles? But at the same time, she came across as rather bratty and unaware of her privilege. There are plenty of people dealing with the same issues but lacking the kind of resources she had and all the time she got to figure it out at largely her own pace. That' doesn’t minimize her struggles for sure, and I feel like she gained some awareness in the process of the story! But it would be easier for me to root for her if she had more awareness at the beginning. Or, alternatively, maybe if there was a deeper delve into those struggles? Because what we’re seeing in the first chapters is the aftermath of a big backstory that we’re told about but never really shown. Perhaps if I got to see more of her problems and better understand her mindset, it would be easier to find points of connection around this obstacle.

The second reason was, I guess, not untypical for my reactions to Talia Hibbert’s books: the characters’ initial connection is very much sex appeal-based, and I’m too ace to appreciate this kind of attraction, I suppose. It also seemed initially that they were moving through life in very different directions and couldn’t offer each other much. However, this last assumption was turned masterfully on this head as Eve and Jacob fell into a really fun Grumpy/Sunshine dynamic and started pushing each other to far healthier places than they’d been in initially. A dash of forced proximity certainly helped on this journey from enemies to lovers. 

It was fun to see the couples from the previous two books of the trilogy, even though—not to delve into spoilers—the circumstances weren’t ideal. And of course I greatly appreciated the neurodivergence rep that felt really thoughtful and authentic. And… have I mentioned the banter? I know I have, but I need to do it again. It’s THAT awesome!

In many ways, this was such a heartbreaking read, and not just because of the difficult  subject matter that includes sexual assault, ED, mental illness, and suicidal ideation. It’s just, I used to be such a big fan of Gracie Gold, and of skating in general. I still think that it’s an incredibly beautiful sport, but over the years I’ve been learning more and more about what’s going on behind all the glamour and I’ve gradually kind of… stopped watching competitions. Part of it for sure was due to a bunch of my faves retiring, but also, I was just feeling more and more icky about enjoying the beauty that was created through such traumatizing toxicity. As if by enjoying the good parts I was becoming cmplicit in the bad parts.  Gracie’s memoir brought back a lot of those feelings and made me again wish to someday witness a healthier, kinder version of that sport.

I can’t imagine how much courage went into being so raw, honest, and vulnerable about these things, and that makes it hard for me to think about this memoir critically. I do feel like the first half or so was stronger than the second, and I feel that might be because that part speaks of the events Gracie has had time to process and gain perspective on. Whereas the parts focused on the last few years are more meandering and journal-like because it’s the part of her life she’s still living, or was living at the time of finishing the book. So there’s no distance and little in the way of honestly examining the events. Still, even those late parts were incredibly interesting to read, and it’s also the second half that includes some of my favorite vents. Most are figure skating-related, such as the musings on doping in the sport, but there’s also that one monologue about the types of moral support that are meant well but are actually often toxic and invalidating. You know, the kind of support that urges you to immediately focus on the positives and count all the silver linings when you’re smackdab in the middle of hurting after a painful failure. That entire part was so, so incredibly relatable and made me feel so seen.

Still, the first half is undeniably much stronger, and I love how compassionate and thoughtful Gracie is in her writing—toward herself, and also toward the people who surrounded her at various stages of her coming of age in the world of figure skating. Including the people who have hurt her, or haven’t helped her enough despite being in the position to do so. She pulled no punches, delving into all the things that harmed her about and around the sport, but then she went just as deep into the process of healing, and it made me so happy to see, page by page, how her struggles against her trauma and illness paid off. There’s really a lot of highly evident personal growth in here, lots of trying to make sense of the world that isn’t all black and white and searching for a way to be your best authentic self amidst it all. There were some conclusions and decisions depicted here that I can’t agree with (life stuff, not sports stuff), but for the most part, I found the book raw, relatable, and enlightening.

This is billed as cozy fantasy, but I’m of  firm opinion that it’s actually a fantasy comedy with some cozy elements—you know, like running a bookshop in a quaint small town with pumpkins and goblins. Otherwise, it’s all just slapstick, tongue-in-cheek humor and poking fun at common fantasy tropes—and I must say, it’s amazingly entertaining. I may not have got much of those cozy fantasy feels I was after, but I laughed and snorted and giggled more times than I can count as I read. So I’m definitely going to recommend this to anyone who wants to just unwind. Just keep in mind that this book clearly doesn’t take itself seriously and you shouldn’t, either.

My favorite thing here is the writing. I hesitate calling this third person omniscient since for the most part we keep close to the protagonist and are aware of what’s going on in her head and such, just like with third person limited—except the protagonist and the narrator are two different entities. And as the narrator helpfully informs us early on, we don’t *really* know what Maribella is thinking and feeling, we’re just going with the narrator’s best assumptions.And the narrator does occasionally pause the tale to offer some voicey opinions and asides, or just to remind the reader to drink some water and have lunch, as one does. All of that weirdly reminded me of some of the funniest, best flowing tabletop RPG sessions I’ve been in, which definitely contributed to the good vibes.

Also, the goblins here are super fun. Love the goblins.

I love how different this book is from the rest of the series. It’s proper dual POV! It takes place in the monster world! It is, in big part, a prequel! Such a breath of fresh air, and yet still without a doubt part of the big overarching story. I really enjoyed looking at the whole “portals opening, worlds colliding“ situation from the other side, as well as generally getting a better sense of what’s life like among the monsters. It was fun to have it sort of tied to the events from that one novella earlier in the series , in a way that completely recontextualizes some of the things stated there. It often makes fictional worlds feel more real to me when the same events/situations/objects get interpreted differently by different characters.

The romance here isn’t perhaps my favorite in the series, but I’ve definitely enjoyed it. I loved how the language barrier between Lor and Jugs was handled, this was my favorite part. Lily Mayne has a real knack, I feel, for putting her characters in situations where they literally can’t communicate and then having them get through it and start talking anyway. The note exchanges between Gloam and Rig, the whole deal with Seraph and Lilac, now this—and because the situations and the solutions are so varied, it never feels repetitive. I also really liked how, in a book written in English, the author made English sound foreign in certain scenes. My other favorite parts include Jug's’s scenes in the human world with all the 1980s vibes and family troubles and some pretty awesome people he found there—I hope they made it through the apocalypse. And also, that semi-subtle retelling element in the second half? Loved it and how it broke my heart.

The plotting could be a bit tighter—this is a big story, but 600+ pages seem excessive. There were entire plot threads that showed up and disappeared for ages only to spring up again seemingly out of the blue. I do think most of them came together neatly enough by the end. At least the ones that focused on Lor. With the ones that focused on Jugs, I have questions. I also have hope that maybe, just maybe the answers lay in the next book, and I think I’ll be stalking the author’s website obsessively waiting for news about it. I loved Lyri so much here, I want to know his story! And I want to get to know Cat at last! Between this book and Moth, there’s so much teasing about the two of them and how that overarching plot resolves, I just can’t handle it.

Such an awesome, cozy, life-affirming read! It’s a romance with pretty much no external conflict. I mean, there are *some* external troubles the characters have to deal with, including rather serious shit from homophobia to chronic illness, but the narrative always shows that there are solutions, there are good, kind people standing by to help, there’s always a way out. All the actual conflicts and challenges that form the plot are fully internal, focusing on the two leads’ traumas, fears, convictions, hopes, and longings. And there’s also lots of friendship, pining, winter sports, cooking, pets, banter, healing, and accidentally becoming roommates.

I’m pretty sure this book originated as a Check, Please! fanfic, but I feel like the characters have very much taken on a life of their own. They’re all complex and interesting people, flawed, and yet ultimately kind and good, and that’s frankly what I loved about it the most: how almost everyone here is very much a good person. And some of them are in a bad place, but they keep getting better in all the best ways.

Alex and Eli’s slowly unfolding relationship was definitely the highlight for me. But I’ve also loved the found family vibes in the hockey team (in both hockey teams, really, because there’s more than one), and all the supporting characters, especially Kuzy who just absolutely won my heart. (By the way, big kudos to the author for his speech pattern—he does sound exactly like a native Russian speaker with a decent English vocabulary picked up by osmosis but little to no formal grammar training). I also loved Hawk, the best girl, and how realistic some of the scenes focused on being out and about with a service dog are. And Eli’s friendship with Cody, and Alex’s bond with Cooper, and the James storyline, and the Christmas chapters at the end—everything. Such an utterly heartwarming book! <3 I’m definitely continuing with the series.

I think this book can be a real treat for readers who are into worldbuilding-heavy, idea-driven fantasy where the characters are mainly used as vehicles to explore the key concepts. The setting here is rich, complex, and quite thoroughly explored. There are a lot of wuxia elements, with plenty of scenes hinging on practicing martial arts and mastering sein, the life force. There’s a clash between two cultures who each have grievous misconceptions about each other, and a lot of discussion about how we tend to dehumanize those who aren’t like us, whether because we see them as weaker or more dangerous, and if we can breach those big gaps. And then there’s the central concept that was the main draw of the book for me: the very cool twist on the Chosen One trope, making those chosen heroes of legend the biggest danger the world has to contend with.

I have personally enjoyed exploring these concepts, but I also felt curiously detached from them throughout. Despite the vast cast of characters who are by no means uninteresting and a plot that’s reasonably twisty, albeit very slow-moving until the final act, I can compare the experience of reading this novel to that of reading an RPG setting book. Like, yay, a cool world! With plenty of interesting challenges and things happening! Now I kind of want to brainstorm what sort of fictional humans may live in it and have personal dramas that aren’t just there to explore the central concepts. Because the characters that are there feel like they exist just for that, and while it’s absolutely a valid approach, it’s not one that resonates with me or pulls me into the story. There were a bunch of more character-focused moments that I did like, such as, for example, Tani’s interactions with Jaer, but overall, I think this just wasn’t really a book for me, in terms of its approach to storytelling. I’m still glad I read it, because I did like the worldbuilding and it gave me a lot of food for thought.

It took me a hot minute to get used to the writing style, and then every time I came back to the book after a break in reading, there was a brief period of readjustment, as well. I wouldn’t call the prose bad by any means, just challenging to get into somehow. Still can’t quite put a finger on why—maybe it’s just an ESL thing on my part.

At the beginning, I was really fascinated by the sci-fi-ish spin on the typical urban fantasy races. However, alas, that worldbuilding began to gradually fall apart past the first few chapters. There were minor details I’d question even if the existence werewolves and vampires was vaguely explained by magic, but the attempt at a more science-y bend made them even more grating. For example, there’s a point in the book when it’s stated that, unlike vampires (sorry, Vampyres), the werewolves (sorry, Weres) don’t stand out to humans at all at a glance. Like, excuse me? They have green blood? They’ve been stated to blush green? They probably have green-tinted nails, mouths, conjunctivae etc? Sounds pretty damn noticeable to me. Though there’s also a scene late in the book that mentions a Were character’s lips being dark red after kissing, so idk what I’m supposed to think here. These details are small, but what with them clashing with how the worldbuilding was presented at the beginning, they kept taking me out of the narrative.

As for the story itself, I really, really liked the political plot. The bigger picture that led to Misery and Lowe’s arranged marriage, the inner struggles withing the Were community, how it all tied together with Serena’s disappearance, all of it was simply delicious. I loved every twist and reveal… up until maybe the final part where

all the missing details get communicated to the protagonists and the reader via a classic villainous monologue

. That, admittedly, I wasn’t a huge fan of. 

The same theme continues with the romance, I guess: all cool up until a certain point. Misery herself was a great narrator whose sense of humor and reaction to trauma and abandonment I found pretty relatable. Lowe didn’t grip me that much, but he had his moments, and overall I liked the dynamic these two head and how their relationship progressed. But then we got to the obligatory third act break-up, which took the form o

f the classic “break their heart in order to save them“ moment

, annnnnd… while I understand why *what* he did was justified, *how* he did it??? Not so much. I’m still reeling because it was never even properly addressed afterward. It honestly made me super angry, and I feel like Misery, based on her earlier characterization, shouldn’t be able to get back to trusting him so soon after.

Despite all my complaints, there were enough fun moments here to make me want to check out more of the author’s books. I also kind of hope for a sequel about Misery’s twin brother, because he’s easily my favorite character in this whole story, and he’s had such a cool arc despite only showing up on page a handful of times!