Mini-Reviews

Last month I wrote a post about the 2019 books that I still hadn’t read yet, but wanted to before the end of the year. I listed 5 books in that post, and I am glad to say that I have finished four of them and started the fifth. Yeah Me!

So because I am probably going to do a series review of the Folk of the Air Series when I finish all of them, I thought I would just do a set of mini-reviews for the ones that I have done now.

Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy

“It’s true, I’m no murderer. But I do have an impulse control problem. And a sword.”

Sadly, overall I ended up not liking this book very much. I’m not sure why though, I liked the characters, Ari and Merlin especially, I even kind of liked the story. I think the whole space mixed with a pseudo-fantasy planet part of it just really didn’t work for me. Also I started this book with the audio version, and I kind of had an issue with the narrator. Not that Lauren Fortgang wasn’t good, but I really take issue with one narrator when there are two distinct voices telling the story especially when each chapter is told from one of their points of view. I really wanted Merlin’s chapters to be narrated by an English guy. That might be slightly sexist of me, but it just needed to be said. Once I moved to the print version, I enjoyed the book a bit more, but still just came away feeling rather meh about it. I might pick up the next one, but then again I might not.

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

“Everything seems different at night. Defined. Beyond the window, the world is full of shadows, all pressed together in harsh relief, somehow sharper than they ever were in daylight.
Sounds seem sharper,too, at night. A whistle. A crack. A child’s whisper.”

This is the first book that this author published, and you can certainly see her style of writing is just beginning. I don’t think this will be my favorite of her books, but I did really like it. Both Lexi and Cole were wonderful characters and even though their relationship was a bit instant, I kind of didn’t mind it. I loved many of the side characters as well, little Wren and the sisters Magda and Dreska. The story as a whole was fascinating but there were many slow parts that really made the story drag. I started with the audiobook, but soon found myself switching back and forth between the audio and the print because of time. I was finding that when I didn’t have time to listen to the book I lost the thread of the story. So on days I didn’t have the time to listen, I would read the book. This worked out well as the story was a bit convoluted and hard to follow at first. But the ending made up for pretty much the issues at the start of the book. I still recommend it to any Victoria Schwab fans who haven’t read it yet.

No Exit by Taylor Adams

“Too much caffeine, not enough sleep. This wasn’t a movie. This was just real life.”

This book was awesome. I loved reading it and highly recommend it to anyone who also loves thrillers. I will definitely being checking out this author’s other books. I would also highly recommend that you try to read this in one sitting. I spread out the first half of the book over a few very busy days, but finally sat down and finished it in one go, and it just made it that much more thrilling and an intense read. Darby is an amazing young woman, who just finds herself in a horrible situation which gets worse as the night goes one. She makes many mistakes in those few hours, but she makes just as many right choices which just seemed totally realistic to me. Heroes should be allowed to make mistakes, it is human nature to want to trust people and to help and protect them too. I should warn you that there are some cruel things done to some of the characters and there is mention of killing animals in horrible ways, but if you can tolerate those things then, YES, you must read this book!

The Similars by Rebecca Hanover

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I liked some things, but there was just something missing. There was some issue with the pacing, it was slow, and I often felt like I was missing things, or things just weren’t explained well or something. I started off thinking that the Similars were the only clones and that was why it was such a big deal, but then apparently cloning had been going on for awhile and they weren’t the only ones. Like I said confusing. Anyways, the main character Emma, who is also our narrator, was likable, and she was tenacious, she just wouldn’t let things go, which was good. But she was also a bit all over the place in the narrative. The other characters were also hard to tell apart at times. The basic plot was good and once things really started moving towards the end of the book I started getting into it a bit more. I liked it enough that I am excited about seeing how things work out in the next book. This was a debut book and I think this author has potential, but we will see. Overall I do recommend this book just be aware of the slowness and the narrative being a bit underwhelming until the end.