booksalacarte's reviews
711 reviews

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

3.5⭐️.5🌶️

A great middle grade fantasy. The characters were good, but the plot was slow.
A Promise of Peridot by Kate Golden

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Court of Talons by Jennifer Chance

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adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

4⭐️2.75🌶️

NA Post Apocalyptic Fantasy
Coming of age
Patriarchal society
Twelfth night reimagining 
Warrior FMC
Magical beasts/familiars
Secret identity
House government system
Tournaments

 I just wish there had been a world map in my eARC.

This was an amazingly unique magic system. I immediately was drawn into the world where men ruled with iron fist. I haven’t read many twelfth night/mulan reimagining, so I was pleasantly surprised by this fierce FMC. Talia witnessing her little brother being killed, takes up his identity to find the murderer and bring honor and vengeance to her house was a great background story for the FMC. 

I enjoyed the Divh and look forward to the back story and further worldbuilding when it comes to understanding them better. The side characters were well conceived and brought so much heart to the story. I find it still unclear the structure of the world outside of the tournament, but I’m sure that the next book will widen the lense of the book to give us a fuller picture.

Modern language and phrases at times, but the writing style was easy to read and get drawn into. 

The love story was a little too insta for me. Claiming an intense connection with very little interactions or knowledge of each other. 

I’m excited to see where this story goes.

Thank you NetGalley and Oliver Herber Books for an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
You, Again by Kate Goldbeck

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

3.75⭐️ 2.75🌶️
The Endless War by Danielle L. Jensen

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

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mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Pride and Prejudice in Space by Alexis Lampley

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lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

2⭐️1.5🌶️

Sci-fi romance
Space romance
Pride and prejudice 
Grumpy sunshine
Miscommunication
Dynamic family
Slow burn


The images didn’t fit well on my kindle. There are over 50 images/illustrations throughout the book, that lost their luster being in black and white on my kindle. The illustrations are spectacularly beautiful… but my kindle just didn’t do it justice. 

Let me be very clear.

Just because a piece of work is public domain, does not mean that this kind of “adaptation” isn’t plagiarism. If Austen were alive today, she would be suing. This book is not a retelling or reimagining of the classic story… It is literally Jane Austen’s writing, in space. The beginning of it feels like it was copied and pasted, which was a letdown when I was looking forward to a more original interpretation.

The idea of a space P&P retelling is interesting. I found that so much from regency England seemed to decently fit into the futuristic setting, it just didn’t seem futuristic… the juxtaposition was not my favorite.

I wish that the author would have taken her wonderfully developed world building and completely ran with it, creating her version of this classic, instead of sticking so closely to Austen’s dialogue and writing style. 

My takeaway from reading it was that this is a book that should have stayed on Ao3. Or maybe it should have been a coffee table book with p&p quotes to reference for the images. A graphic novel would have been amazing!!! 

Thank you NetGalley and Union Square & Co for an eARC for this book. All opinions are my own.
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

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adventurous funny hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75