Category: Reviews

Reviews

Rest Stop Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on Rest Stop Review

A young musician finds himself locked inside a gas station bathroom in the middle of the night by an unseen assailant, caught between the horrors on the other side of the door and the horrors rapidly skittering down the walls inside.

Abe is a deeply layered character, and despite this being a novella, we’re given plenty of insight into his background, which I really appreciated. The story delves into his past and explores his relationships with those closest to him. That phone call with his brother at the beginning did a great job of establishing who Abe is and where he stands within his family.

I really enjoyed the gradual buildup of tension and anticipation throughout the story. The addition of the animals from the reptile farm was unsettling, and as someone who’s terrified of spiders, those moments in the bathroom were particularly tough to get through. I can’t even fathom being in that situation—trapped, terrified, and then having to decipher cryptic notes on top of it all.

This wasn’t the most gruesome book I’ve read, but it definitely had its fair share of unsettling moments. While I didn’t find it especially scary, the vivid descriptions made it easy to picture everything playing out in my mind. It certainly makes you think twice about stopping at a gas station in the middle of the night!

⭐️3/5 A shorty, wacky and wild read!

Reviews

Chlorine Review

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Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach, her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life. But these are human concerns. The concerns of those confined to land. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Stories that called sailors to their doom. Stories that dragged them down and drowned them. Stories of the creature that she’s always longed to become: a mermaid. Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine – the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.

I enjoyed Ren’s character for the majority of the book however, she does become more and more unlikeable as the plot progresses. I think it’s mostly to do with her slow descent into madness and her lack of empathy and awareness of the feelings of those around her. She was so mean and nasty to Cathy throughout the book and it was very unwarranted I feel. Cathy continuously shows up for Ren and the couple of times where the peer pressure was too great for the both of them Ren blames Cathy for not speaking up more.

The pacing of this book wasn’t really consistent for me. There are times where Ren is on the go and then it slows down and we’re going around in circles a lot of the time. This is a pretty short book in terms of pages but it felt like kind of a slog to get thorough which made me a bit hesitant to pick it back up at times.

This book had a lot of potential. I can see how some of the themes in here can really relate to a lot of young people, especially those that are still in high school but I’ve realised whilst reading this book that coming of age stories aren’t my favourite thing to read any more. I don’t really have the patience to sit through hundreds of pages of young people making obvious and unnecessary mistakes over and over and not really take accountability.

⭐️3/5 stars fell a bit flat for me

Reviews

Guillotine Review

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*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Thrift fashionista Dez Lane doesn’t want to date Patrick Ruskin; she just wants to meet his mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine. When he invites her to his family’s big Easter reunion at their lake retreat, she’s certain she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship someone with her pedigree could never nab through the regular submission route. When they arrive at the enormous mansion on an island in the center of a Georgia lake, Dez is floored―she’s never witnessed how the 1% lives before in all their ridiculous, unnecessary luxury. But once all the family members are on the island and the ferry has departed, shit gets real. For decades, the Ruskins have made their servants sign contracts that are basically indentured servitude, and with nothing to lose, the servants have decided their only route to freedom is to get rid of the Ruskins for good…

I absolutely loved the fact that Dez is just using Patrick to get to his mother and her feelings for him doesn’t change throughout the book, if anything she finds him more repugnant. It’s one thing to just have the thought of using Patrick but her commitment level and the lengths that she would go to just to get into the same room as Marie Ruskin was very entertaining to read. Having her being this morally gray character right from the start gave the book more chances to surprise us because we know that Dez is capable of pretty much anything.

I almost wish that I didn’t read the synopsis and was just surprised by what was going to happen because this was just so well done. Establishing from the start that Dez doesn’t belong to this world and how uncomfortable she already is and being unsure of how the staff are acting and not wanting to say anything because she has no precedent. Are they being super weird or is this just the norm for the uber rich? I also really enjoyed how much of a full circle plot this was despite being a shorter novel. I almost wish it was more of a fill length so we can learn more about Patrick’s family and not just finding out about them when they are about to die.

There are some truly shocking and gory moments and it didn’t shy away from describing all of the details. You really can’t help but wonder if this kind of thing is happening out there in the real world which is quite sad. I definitely found myself aligning with the staff and feel as though they are righting the wrongs this family has wrought on them throughout the years. The fact that these Ruskin men were so arrogant that they never seen this coming and got what they deserve really was the icing on the cake of this fantastic book!

⭐️4/5 stars I ate this up!

Reviews

Gild Review

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*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I’m called his precious. His favored. I’m the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don’t leave the confines of the palace, I’m safe. Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck. Suddenly, my trust is broken. My love is challenged. And I realize that everything I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong.

Auren definitely has some form of Stockholm syndrome because King Midas really has done a number on her. I can understand her being happy as his favoured one had she been fully aware and ‘in’ on everything that King Midas was doing. But as the story has unfolded and she’s found out there is a whole lot of information that she hasn’t been made privvy to she has to realise that she can’t keep living like this. I have a feeling she isn’t going to happily go back to her cage after everything now.

All the men that have been introduced so far in this series are all quite horrible. Not only to Auren but the other saddles and women as well. Even the guard who she befriends on the trip is still more loyal to Midas than he is to Auren. I can’t see how any of them can be redeemed as far as I’m concerned so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the series play out.

Being first a self published romantasy book I feel as though Raven Kennedy was gearing the book towards those types of readers. At the time reading this I wasn’t personally offended by the language or any of the abusive scenes that take place but I can definitely see how a lot of people would. Be that as it may I was still very engaged and intrigued by the plot of this book, I finished it in basically one sitting. It was a slower start but the pace definitely picked up the story progressed and there was definitely plenty of twists and turns that were quite entertaining.

⭐️3/5 stars quite an addictive read

Reviews

Fourth Wing Review

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*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general – also known as her tough-as-talons mother – has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter – like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Violet as our main protagonist was just a little bit annoying to me. The book really just overemphasized how she’s ‘not like every other girl’ at Basgiath. She’s so tiny and breakable yet she ends up being the most powerful, it was just a bit predictable in that manner. But I was definitely able to overlook this easily and just enjoy the book for what it was. I do enjoy the fact that it shows us various time that she does have to take measures (like wrapping her knees) so she can keep up with everyone else.

Xaden was very well written. He definitely is one of my favourite male main characters I’ve read in a while. Again though it’s just following that same fantasy formula where we have the sexy antagonist who is just misunderstood. There are a few instances where he does live up to his name and is quite ruthless and I like the fact that he doesn’t baby Violet and calls out Dain for holding her back. Speaking of Dain, again very very predictable what was going to happen with him. I knew from the first couple chapters that he was going to end up betraying Violet and it was a bit frustrating that she didn’t see that until the very end.

What saved this for me was the dragons and the plot twists for sure! I love the fact that the dragons are still shown as being quite wild even though they are bonded with humans. They will kill other riders and the cadets with no qualms and we’re not afraid to let everyone know it. The stakes were always high because of this and kept me on the edge of my seat for sure. I love that they are have such different personalities and they corresponded so well with their riders.

⭐️4/5 stars I can thankfully say this did live up to the hype for me!