abby_ace_of_books's reviews
608 reviews

I think that this was a classic case of right book, wrong time.

In theory, I should've adored this book. It was like A Darker Shade of Magic met Elena of Avalor and they had a baby with some of my favorite tropes.
But it took forever to read the book and I was bored. Were there plenty of actions scenes? Yes. Was there angst and danger? All the time. Did I like the characters? They weren't my favorites, but I didn't dislike them.
I don't know why this book fell flat. Was it the wrong time to read it? Am I in a reading slump? Was it really just not my kind of book? I have no idea. All I know is that I was sort of disappointed in what I anticipated to be one of my favorite reads of the year.

I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed When Gods Fall. To be quite honest, the only reason I finished it as fast as I did was because I was convinced I could predict a plot twist and my roommate thought I was dead wrong. (Well, guess what, I was right! Did I miss all of the other plot twists? Yes. But do I care? A little, but that's not important.)
The world-building was probably my favorite part of the book. It's reminiscent of a Greco-Roman word with twelve gods that match with the twelve Olympians. However, there are three different sets of gods (including the main twelve) for the main three regions of the world. There are also Non-Humans...which I don't really know how to describe. There's also the Gifts of the gods, which is essentially the magic system. I really liked the take on "demigods" and the various forms of magic found throughout the book. In general, though, the world-building was super immersive and intriguing.
In terms of plot, it was relatively fast-paced. When I look back on how much happened in the book, I'm amazed at how much was fit into roughly 1,000 e-book pages. It did drag a bit closer to the end, but the actual ending was explosive and I can't say much more without spoiling anything.
I also really liked the character dynamics of this book. The backstories of Alena and Katell reminded me a bit of Veronyka and Val from the Crown of Feathers, whereas their actual relationship reminded me a lot of Ephyra and Beru from There Will Come a Darkness. Personally, I found Alena's POVs to be more interesting than Katell's, but I know I'm in the minority there. The romance was pretty good, although I can sense a love triangle forming and I don't know which side I like better. On one hand, Leukos and his Elsa powers are a safe bet, but Nik is the Luke Castellan I never knew I needed. I do hate Dorias though with my entire being and I will die on that hill.
When Gods Fall is the beginning of an epic fantasy series with Greco-Roman inspired world-building and magic combined with an enticing rebellion plot and mysteriously charming characters. I look forward to seeing where the series goes next, and I can see the villain becoming truly despicable.
Thanks to BookSSirens and the publisher for the free e-ARC.
4.25/5

REREAD REVIEW:
I stand firm in my belief that rivals to lovers is infinitely better than enemies to lovers.

This was my second time reading Divine Rivals, and it was every bit as enchanting as I remember. The prose is beautifully written (I am so jealous of Iris and Roman and their ability to write amazing sentences on a whim) and the story is wonderfully done. Set in a fantasy world similar to the WWI era and filled with rich mythology that reminded me a bit of the Persephone myth, it's probably the only "romantasy" I actually enjoyed.
Iris and Roman are journalists competing for a columnist section in their newspaper, but their journey takes them to the war front. While it's not a story filled with action-packed explosion scenes, I actually preferred its slower pacing and focus on fleshing out Iris and Roman as characters. (Also, the ending is cruel...)
There's a handful of side characters, but the main focus of the novel is clearly Iris and Roman. I really liked Iris's character. She's strong but still relatable and I enjoyed reading her articles as well as her internal monologues. Roman's POVs are less frequent but just as enjoyable, especially because he falls for Iris long before she falls for him. The way he describes her...Roman Kitt is setting the standards way too high. Their romance is well-written and based on genuine love and not lust.
Divine Rivals is a beautifully written novel about the truths of war and the strength of love in the face of darkness, and I am so excited to read the next one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roman. Crazy. Kitt.
There is no way that everyone is fighting over Rhysand and Xaden when Roman Kitt exists.

"She and Roman would survive this war. They would have the chance to grow old together, year by year. They would be friends until they both finally acknowledged the truth. And they would have everything that other couples had---the arguments and the hand-holding in the market and the gradual exploration of their bodies and the birthday celebrations and the journeys to new cities and the living as one and sharing a bed and the gradual sense of melting into each other. Their names would be entwined---Roman and Iris or Winnow and Kitt because could you truly have one without the other?---and they would write on their typewriters and ruthlessly edit each other's pieces and read books by candlelight at night"(425).

The worldbuilding is exquisite, the writing is divine (get what I did there?), and the characters and romance are so amazingly well-written.

Spoiler

Also...that ending? I am so freaking excited for book two. Hopefully it gives me what I wanted from Marie Lu's Steelstriker but didn't get.

"'It's not a crime to feel joy, even when things seem hopeless. Iris, look at me. You deserve all the happiness in the world. And I intend to see that you have it'"(508).
Link to Libby Annotations

"'I don't know any of those cursebreakers,' Adrius replied easily. 'I know you.'"

Garden of the Cursed is single-handedly convincing me that I sometimes have good luck. Not only is it yet another incredible by Katy Rose Pool, but I ordered a used copy and ended up with a signed, exclusive edition? My dreams have come true (and it's so beautiful).
This is yet another one of my fantasy-mystery reads where we join Marlow as she tries to break a compulsion curse on her ex, Adrius. I'm not usually a fan of second-chance romances or fake dating, but this book has proven to me that there are good examples of those tropes. There's so much angst and I'm here for it. I love all of the twists and turns and red herrings. The only thing I have any issue with in the plot is that most of the scenes are just party scenes with a bit of drama, and I'm hoping to see maybe a bit more action in the sequel but that's my only complaint.
I love all of these characters so much. If Swift doesn't get a happy ending, I'm going to riot. There's also Toad, the magical cat, and I love her. Most of the other side characters are designed to be unlikeable, so I wasn't really fond of them. But Marlow and Adrius? They're one of my favorite book couples and I love Marlow's personality and Adrius's sense of humor. They're amazing.
The last time I reviewed this, I said "I apologize for the person I will become when the sequel comes out," and guess who just got an ARC of the sequel. I love this duology so much and cannot recommend it more, and I am so unbelievably excited for one of my most anticipated reads of 2024.
4.5/5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Maybe that's all love was. Handing someone a knife and trusting that they wouldn't cut your throat."

I firmly believe that Katy Rose Pool is incapable of writing a bad book.
There Will Come a Darkness is one of my all-time favorite series, so when I found out that Katy Rose Pool was releasing a new duology, one that's a mix of fantasy and mystery, I was ecstatic and it was 100% worth the wait.
A murder mystery filled with so many twists and turns that I managed to call only one of them, agonizingly angsty romance, loveable characters, a unique magic system, and a cat named Toad? What more could you ask for?
I read this entire book in basically one day. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire thing, annotating the heck out of my poor e-book because I felt that everything was noteworthy.
Marlow is an incredibly cool protagonist and Adrius is one of my favorite love interests. I love Swift and Toad and the vibes of the story as a whole.
110% will recommend to everyone I speak to for the next 24 hours, and I apologize for the person I will become when the sequel comes out.

Link to My Annotations

Once again, a book has fallen victim to not meeting Abby's extremely high expectations, and it's not the book's fault.

I picked up The Space Between Worlds because I thought it was a multiverse murder mystery and it sounded super cool. As it turns out, I just assumed it was a murder mystery based on the description and then got mad when it wasn't, so my opinion on this book isn't completely fair and I'm going to try to be as unbiased as I can because of that.
I haven't really read multiverse books before, so I was a bit scared going into it but the worldbuilding was actually fairly easy to follow. There are infinite universes, yes, but only 380 or so are similar enough to Earth 0 to be traveled to, and only if a person is dead in the universe they want to visit. The book mainly takes place in Earth 0 and Earth 175 (although there is backstory in 22). Most of Cara's other selves are dead and I assumed she would be trying to figure out why, but instead, it was mostly political rivalries and corruption within the company. The story had potential and the worldbuilding was cool, but it felt very slow to me and I also found the ending to be unsatisfying. The problems are sort of resolved, but it just felt like a lot of build-up for something that never came.
I also had mixed feelings about the characters. Cara is a very stubborn main character and I thought her backstory was very neat, but I didn't love her personality at times. As a "sorta" love interest, I found Dell to be a bit bland just because she was so aloof and we didn't get a reason until almost 30 pages from the end. There were also 8 different "Niks": Two Senior Niks, three Nik Niks, and 3 Adraniks (except one has a different name). Admittedly, I think the Adranik and Nik Nik dynamics between each universe were probably my favorite part because there was a fair amount of tension behind each introduction to a new character because I had no idea if I could trust them or not.
I think that The Space Between Worlds is a neat sci-fi book, but personally, I don't know if it was for me.
3.5/5

How do you know you've read a book too many times? When you look at the sentences in other languages and know exactly what they say because you remember google translating them the last time you read it.

In my defense, this is my third time (I think?) reading The Knowing. As a companion novel to The Forgetting, it focuses on the aftermath of society realizing they don't have to forget anymore...meaning they now NEVER forget.
The story takes place on another planet where people either forget everything every 12 years or they remember everything and are forced to relive their most horrific memories frequently. Samara is one of the Knowing, and she seeks a way to Forget the memories that haunt her. Beckett has just arrived on a new planet with the intent of exploring it. There's a fair amount of adventure, plenty of politics and betrayals, and just a tinge of romance. The beginning and the end are fairly fast-paced, although the middle can admittedly drag at times. However, the last 50 or so pages are incredibly fast-paced and I was on the edge of my seat because somehow I managed to forget how it ended.
The characters are relatively intriguing as well. The practical uses of Samara's memories intrigued me the most (she can tell time and temperature perfectly), and I thought her interactions with Beckett were neat, too. I liked Beckett mostly because of his interest in anthropology, and his sense of humor was good as well. Jill kind of got on my nerves from the beginning and I need to know how old Nathan is because I picture him as like 12...and he's clearly not. The other characters - specifically the Knowing like Reddix - were also interesting, but they weren't the focus of the story.
Fans of The Forgetting will enjoy the easter eggs in The Knowing, but it also functions as an interesting sci-fi story about healing from the past.

4/5

counting this towards my reading goal because I read basically cover to cover and that's a lot of pages

"'My name is Celaena Sardothien,' she whispered, 'and I will not be afraid.'"

Call me heartless, but The Assassin's Blade did not make me cry. Did it hurt? Yes. Is it my third time reading it? Also, yes (and I can't remember if I cried the last two times, but seeing as one of them was at Disney, I don't think I did). However, I intend to reread the entire Throne of Glass series, so there will be tears to come...
This book contains five novellas from Celaena's POV prior to the events of Throne of Glass, and I know it's supposed to be, like, fourth in terms of reading order but because I've read it before, I didn't care. For being a bunch of novels, the story manages to pack a bunch of emotional punches while simultaneously revealing so many easter eggs. It's definitely a worthwhile read for that alone.
I don't have much to say about the characters, either. Celaena will always be way stronger than Feyre (although I am over the trope of characters not realizing their love interest is in love with them). I think Sam is good as far as love interests go, and that's all I'm going to say because if you read it, you can probably guess what I'm feeling. I hate Arobynn and pretty much every other character in this book. Yrene is fine, and so is Illias, but all of the other characters can die, and I wouldn't care.
The Assassin's Blade is the emotionally damaging prequel to the Throne of Glass series, and I definitely recommend getting the pocket-size versions of the books so you can carry it around with you and be sad in public.

4/5

"Give me children, or else I die."

Just a few notes before I actually start some semblance of a "review": I read this book on my own accord (not for a class). This is the first "classic" I've read on my own. Therefore, I almost certainly missed a bunch of themes and nuances, and I apologize if something went over my head. Additionally, I thought my decision to read this on my own time would make me enjoy it more (as I have a tendency to initially dislike books that were assigned to me), but honestly, the experience was about the same; it just felt less academic, and my annotations - which I will include below - aren't very intelligent.

So, The Handmaid's Tale itself. I chose this as my first "on my own" classic to read, given the current circumstances involving reproductive rights for women, and while I am satisfied with it, I will admit that I think has fallen into the trap of Abby's Extremely High Expectations. And, as it seems to be with most classics I read, I like the concepts but not the execution.

"One detaches oneself. One describes."

This quote right here sums up the narration style for the novel, and something I struggled with. Almost the entire story is a series of observations, some of which have what I perceived to be little meaning in relation to the story as a whole. Do I understand why? Yes. Complacency is one of the themes of the novel, and by observing rather than analyzing or acting, Offred is protecting herself. She says at one point, "If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off." The narration is the only thing in this world that Offred has control of, and I really like that idea. While it's an interesting concept, it's not a super interesting read and the narration style was part of the reason I had to require myself to read a certain page amount each day.
That being said, I really did enjoy the themes and messages that this book expressed, especially regarding bodily autonomy. I'll include some of the quotes I bookmarked below:

"There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from."

"We were a society dying, said Aunt Lydia, of too much choice."

"Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn’t really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn’t about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it’s about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing."

"We are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices."

"You are a transitional generation, said Aunt Lydia. It is the hardest for you. We know the sacrifices you are being expected to make."

I won't ramble on for much longer, as I know there's nothing about this book I could say that hasn't already been said. This is one of the few classics I've read that I have relatively few issues with, and, especially in our current age, I think it deserves the recognition it gets.
I'm not going to give The Handmaid's Tale a number rating, as I feel like it's not fair to rate books of this kind for how much (or little) I enjoyed them, but all I'll say is that it's one of the few classics that I hope to reread some day.
Link to Libby Annotations

If I hear the pink sunset compared to cat vomit one more time, I am going to scream.

In my experience, the YA dystopias and sci-fis of the early 2000s are hit-or-miss for me; I either love them or hate them. Unfortunately for Uglies...it kind of fell flat for me. Maybe my expectations were too high, and I expected more social commentary than "ugly and intelligent good, vapid and pretty bad." Maybe I just didn't vibe with this book. All I'm saying is it's not a series I'm eager to finish.
The storyline is pretty simple and follows a lot of familiar tropes from the genre. Tally is an ugly, waiting for the day she turns 16 so she can be pretty and party all the time instead of doing...whatever it is uglies are supposed to do in their free time? Her new friend Shay invites her to join a rebellion, Tally says nope, and then suddenly the government is like, "hey, actually you're going to go spy on this rebellion for us because it makes sense to send a 16-year-old girl out into the woods with some spaghetti and a hoverboard." There was a fair amount of action in the last 25% of the book, but it wasn't enough to make up for Tally's annoying inner monologue. And as much as I like the implications of the ending, it doesn't erase the second-hand embarrassment I got when Tally just kept digging herself into a deeper hold.
I also didn't really like any of the characters, and I think it might have been the fault of the worldbuilding. When your setting requires your characters to either be stupid and hot or ugly and "morally-correct," it doesn't give a lot of room for interesting characters. I found David to be bland, Shay to be obnoxiously petty, and the rest of the cast to be equally two-dimensional. And, as I said before, Tally's inner monologue drove me nuts because her sense of morals is "wrong" until it gets changed in less than a minute, and that's literally the only character development she has. I think it would've been more interesting if the pretties actually engaged in interactions with the uglies so we could see the dynamics mix.
Uglies is an early YA dystopian novel about a world where beauty is the only thing that matters and a girl's journey in self-acceptance.

3/5