Amy Leigh Reads

Sex and Vanity Review

July 29, 2020July 28, 2020by amyleighreads1 Comment

52070924._SY475_ Sex and Vanity revolves around a girl named Lucie who travels to Capri for her good friend’s wedding where she meets George. From their first meeting Lucie decides she doesn’t like him but gradually she is drawn closer to him as the festivities continues and eventually they are involved in a tryst that could damage her families reputation.

Lucie I am kind of in two minds about. I sympathise with her in regards to the casual racism and subtle ostracism she feels from her father’s side of the family but I can’t relate to her at all because of her wealth. She can definitely be likeable at times but she just doesn’t stand up for herself enough. I wanted her to call out her grandmother and her cousins about what they have been doing to her for all these years but she just takes it all out on Christine. And then petulantly running that smear campaign against Rosemary who has been nothing but nice to her was just unnecessary, though I am glad she got called out for it.

We honestly don’t find out enough about George. I wish we got a few chapters from his perspective or just even what he has been up to. His background is alluded to but we don’t really get any concrete facts about him or his personality. The relationship between him and Lucie is kind of lacking depth as well. We get a nice introduction at the start of the book and the foundations are laid but they just didn’t have enough scenes together for me to really be convinced.

There were just a little too many conversations throughout revolving around all of the connections and various famous people that they know. I found myself skimming through a lot of those sections because I wasn’t all that interested in reading all these different random names and titles all the time. If the narrative would have focused more on the actual characters and the relationship at the core of the story and not just name dropping all the time I felt like I maybe would have enjoyed it a lot more.

⭐️2/5 stars A little shallow…

Top Ten Tuesdays

Seasonal TBR Rejects

July 28, 2020July 30, 2020by amyleighreads12 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a freebie so I thought I would go back through my last couple of seasonal TBR’s (Autumn, Spring, Summer) and see which books I chose that I haven’t actually read yet, thus hopefully spurring me to pick them up!! Fingers crossed

☀️ Summer TBR☀️

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🌸 Spring TBR🌼

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🍂 Autumn TBR🍂

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Readathons, Wrap Ups

Reading Rush Wrap Up

July 27, 2020July 27, 2020by amyleighreads6 Comments

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I accomplished all the goals I set for myself and completed some great books along the way! All of my ratings for the books will be in my monthly wrap up!

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

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The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller

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Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed

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The Night Country by Melissa Albert

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Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo

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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

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Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

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I ended up completing all of the reading challenges plus I collected a few of the extra badges along the way!

Reviews

Into the Crooked Place Review

July 24, 2020July 31, 2020by amyleighreads4 Comments

43550637._SY475_ Into the Crooked Kingdom follows a girl named Tavia who sells dark magic on the streets for her Underboss Wesley. Until one day she uncovers a sinister plot that could detroy the whole realm and all the people in it.

I really enjoyed all of the characters in this book. They were all very distinct and you could differentiate between them easily. All being from different parts of the realm and having such varying backgrounds was really intriguing and definitely brought more depth to the storyline.

Tavia was one of my favourites. I think because she essentially introduced us into the storyline I was more attached to her character in particular. Her love/hate relationship with Wesley was very entertaining, I kind of wish they would of acted on their feelings or maybe communicated a little bit better. Wesley for a minute there seemed open to that idea but Tavia shut him down and walked away. I think if we had a little more romance in the plot I would have been more engaged.

Unfortunately there were times throughout the book where I wasn’t all that interested in what was happening and didn’t really care. Although we are given pretty high stakes and there was definitely a lot of twists thrown in there were long periods of not a lot happening and it made me zone out a little.

I also wish we delved deeper into the magic system and how it works. We are kind of given a lot of information but I felt like it wasn’t enough. Maybe if we were given the origin of the world a little more and how the different charms work. How the Kingpin came to power in the first place or learning about the different people in the world would of helped. How the crafters came to be and how many different clans of the Kin there are.

I came out of this book a underwhelmed. I felt like the bones were there for a great fantasy story and there were elements I really loved. The found family, the intriguing magic system, an evil overlord they need to defeat, but it didn’t wow me in any way. I am still interested enough in the characters where I think I will be picking up the next book but it’s not something I’m dying to read.

⭐️3/5 stars Not gripping enough for me…