book – Page 212 – Amy Leigh Reads

Lock Every Door Review

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020by amyleighreads2 Comments

*Spoilers Below*

41837243._SY475_ Intense!

Lock Every Door follows our main character Jules over the course of 5 days after she is accepted as an apartment sitter for a very prestigious building in New York where some weird things start to occur.

Jules is very easy to relate to and empathise with. We learn a lot about her character over the course of the book and what she has had to endure not just in the last few weeks but also throughout her life with her family. These experiences definitely play a role in her decision making throughout the course of the plot and it makes sense why she chooses to do certain things. Not giving up on Ingrid after what happened to her sister and wanting to do whatever it takes to find out what happened.

I definitely didn’t trust any of the characters that live at the Bartholomew. Even when Jules started to talk to them all and make connections with them, there was just something about them all that felt off.

When Jules started putting two and two together through her search for Ingrid and finding these clues and uncovering secrets I was highly invested. When she came up with what she thought was the reasoning behind all of the disappearances I was completely on board with her theory. It made sense, especially since David went missing shortly after. Then when the actual reason is uncovered and Jules finds out the truth it is even more shocking as it has nothing to do with any otherworldly, satanic rituals.

The pacing was very well done, I thought the premise was very original and captivating. The steady rise in tension throughout the plot kept me on the edge of my seat and the mystery aspect kept my highly entertained!

⭐️4/5 stars Suspenseful, tense, shocking!

Reviews

The Ten Thousand Doors of January Review

January 17, 2020January 17, 2020by amyleighreads6 Comments

43521657 I didn’t think portal fantasy would work for me but this was ok!

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is about a young girl called January who stumbles across a doorway to another world, setting off a chain of events that will change her life forever!

At first the story was a quite dry and hard to get into. It was a little on the slower side and it wasn’t gripping my attention as much as I wanted it to. It was a kind of info dumpy at the start and it was hard to focus on what was going on. Though, as the story continues and the dual timelines start to come into play, I became really invested in the story.

I didn’t really like January’s character at the start of the book. She was very placid and didn’t stand up for herself enough for me. In hindsight it does make sense why she would just do nothing but it was sooo frustrating in those moments when I felt like she just didn’t even try.

I was really invested in Adelaide and Eul’s story! I kind of wanted the focus to be more on them and less on January to be perfectly honestly. I would have loved to follow Adelaide more closely as she traveled the world trying to find the right door. She was tenacious and driven and would do absolutely anything to get to her goal, which contrasts quite starkly with January.

The inclusion of the ‘vampires’ was a little strange to me. It didn’t go into enough detail as to what the creatures actually were and they felt like a last minute addition to create an antagonist for January to be running from. Even though the overall story was fantastical that element seemed a little too supernatural and was quite jarring for me.

Overall I did get swept away into the story! The characters were all very distinct and interesting. The few plot twists that were thrown in did take me by surprise and in the end it was entertaining!

⭐️3/5 stars Good, could of been great!

Updates

WWW Wednesday

January 15, 2020January 15, 2020by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment

I figured it was time for another WWW Wednesday update…

1 copy Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen

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2 copy The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

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3 copy Hopefully Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan

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Top Ten Tuesdays

Bookish Discoveries of 2019

January 14, 2020July 11, 2020by amyleighreads22 Comments

For this week’s Top 10 Tuesday prompt I decided to go with new authors I discovered in 2019. This list is all the authors that I read from for the first time and I loved them enough to want to continue to pick up either their back-list or any books they may publish in the future!

Now one of my all-time favourite fantasy authors!

The Seven Realms is now one of my all-time favourite fantasy series ever!

Chilling and atmospheric, I need to dip into more of her back-list titles!

for some reason all her books intimidated me but I definitely need to read them all!

I am in the middle of the Falling Kingdoms series and I am highly impressed

I binged the first two books in The Shadow Game trilogy!

her books are diverse, realistic and highly engaging!

I’ve been impressed with the representation of culture and mental health she includes in her romances!

I’ve only read one of her books and I need to rectify that situation very soon!

super fun romances full of diverse characters

Reviews

The Starless Sea Review

January 13, 2020January 13, 2020by amyleighreads1 Comment

39834986._SX318_ The Starless Sea is a very whimsical, lyrical fantasy novel revolving around a man who picks up a book in a library and finds a story from him childhood in the pages.

To be totally honest I was completely lost for the first half of this book. It was really hard for me to stay focused on the story and actually comprehend what was happening. It jumps back and forth so often between Zachary’s point of view and the fairy tales that it came across a little nonsensical to me. However, after that half way point I really got settled into the story and was able to understand and appreciate how everything was tied together.

All of these characters in this book are very diverse and distinct. Each one of them has a purpose in the novel and interconnects in such a fascinating way. I really liked Zachary; he was very relatable and realistic to me. He was naïve but still questioned everything that was happening around him which I appreciated. Dorian I was a little skeptical about at the start. We aren’t given a lot of background information about him and I wanted to learn a bit more about where he comes from and what he did with Allegra all those years.

The romance aspect came across a little insta-lovey to me. They didn’t have enough substance for me to fully commit to that story line, however I was able to appreciate how they come together after experiencing everything that happens in the harbor. I was more fascinated by the Keeper and Mirabel; I wanted more interaction between them and to learn more about their history as well.

I have come to the realization that I don’t really like this kind of fantasy novel. There is not really any structure to the magic system and there aren’t really any rules or restrictions that are explained. You kind of just have to go with the flow of the novel and accept what were given and learn things as we go. This whimsical style just doesn’t gel with me personally.

Once I was able to really get my bearings in the story, I was very much engaged and wanted to know what was going to happen next. There is definitely a level of unpredictability and tension on the book was kept me invested in that second half of the plot. I was still a confused at the end about how the new harbor would be established…. especially since they are now on the surface? I definitely think this is a book that I will need to reread just to get everything to sink in!

⭐️3/5 stars confusing yet whimsical