onthesamepage's reviews
1013 reviews

I don't know when I forgot how much I like messy characters, but I'm so glad books like these are getting published and reminding me that I do. Is Alexey a terrible human being? Absolutely. He was grooming Dimitri and went on to groom Ivan, he was abusive and manipulative, and there wasn't a single moment where I was rooting for him. But getting to read things from his perspective was fascinating.

I really like lovers to enemies as a trope, and seeing how Alexey and Dimitri broke apart through flashbacks was great. There's a scene where Alexey hits Dimitri, and instead of taking it, Dimitri hits back, and let me tell you, I was cheering him on. 

The juxtaposition to all that toxicity is the romance that blossoms between Dimitri and Vasily. It goes from friends with benefits to lovers in a way that felt like a very natural progression, without ignoring the fact that Dimitri is dealing with a lot of trauma. Vasily was probably my favourite perspective to read—I like reading about clever people being clever, and watching him maneuver his way into Alexey's court as a spy was exciting. 

The first 40-50% is pretty slow-paced, but the last 30% is absolutely wild. So much happens that I couldn't have predicted, and I loved the roller coaster it took me on. I will say that I had some minor issues with the ending—

for a group that's supposedly fairly smart, I truly don't understand how they saw a demon fly off with Alexey and decided they didn't need to follow up on that

. But it's a minor gripe when I had a really good time with the book. 

One thing I will say is that, even though the author does not list this as an inspiration in any way, I couldn't help but compare Alexey and his Holy Science to Zionism. There are specific references to Alexey poisoning and slaughtering innocent people, using kids as shields, etc. It hits differently when we're witnessing a genocide against Palestinians where a lot of the same things are happening. It took me a while to figure out where the discomfort was coming from, but once I'd identified it, it ceased to be an issue.

Tropes:

second chance romance, misunderstandings

Steam level: 🌶

I didn't have very high expectations when I started this book—I don't tend to enjoy road trip stories, or have much affinity with cowboys, so at best I figured this would be a good enough palate cleanser. A nice book to take with me on vacation—easy to drop if I'm not enjoying it, easy to unhaul when I'm done.

I was so, so wrong. This book turned all my expectations upside down, and I was so here for it.

With second chance romances you already know there's going to be a moment of confrontation, where they deal with what went wrong the first time. I thought that would happen towards the end of the story, and that most of the time would be spent on Leo and Lily simmering in their "I still love them but they also hurt me and I don't know what to do about it" feelings. Instead, they talk about it frankly before we hit the 30% mark, which was a pleasant surprise. And then the book took a turn I wasn't expecting, and I was immediately hooked and invested. I don't want to say more than this, because I think that's part of the magic of this story. All I can say is that it took me on a fun adventure, while avoiding the pitfalls that can ruin a romance for me (like unnecessary third act conflicts). I had no idea I would have such a fantastic time with it when I started, and I want to apologize to the book for judging it by its synopsis and cover.

What I can talk a little bit more about is the romance, and how Leo and Lily had me grinning from ear to ear. They had a lot of cute and sweet moments, and it was easy to root for them as a couple (also hard to achieve in a second chance romance).

Tropes: 

age gap

If this is your first foray into danmei, I would honestly recommend putting this down until you have a few other volumes onto your belt, because it's a weird one. The story hits that weird spot between seriousness and ridiculousness to the point that I could almost call this satire. There's psychological ebola, two supposed straight men trying to outdo each other in homophobia, and then there are the moments where one of said men smells the other's hormones.

It is still really well-written, and it takes some side tracks where it discusses mental illness and the abuse of patients, which is good because there' really not much to latch onto when it comes to the romance yet. I did end up finding He Yu and Xie Qingcheng constantly going "no I'm more homophobic!" a bit tedious/laid on thick towards the end, and I'm really hoping the next volumes tone that part of it down.

Not a favourite so far, but I am open to trying a second volume to see where it goes.

I thought I'd get through this book without letting it get to me, but the ending got me after all.

I have a real appreciation for the character work Backman does in his books, and Ove was no exception. The voice the author gave him is full of unintentional humor. He cares so much for people and takes their needs into consideration, even while constantly saying and thinking that he doesn't care and that everyone should stop bothering him and leave him to die in peace. I enjoyed his interactions with the different people and pets that forced themselves into his life, but I guess the cat will be my favourite.

Sad, but also really heartwarming.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

I can't say that this isn't a reimagining of Macbeth, but it's not what I was hoping for.

I've always had a certain fondness for Lady Macbeth as a character. She is the driving force behind Macbeth's ambition, she's cunning and manipulative, and she has so much agency in that story. With this being a version centering her, I was hoping to see all of that amped up to 11. But that's not the route the author chose to take, and unfortunately, I ended up being disappointed. I came here hoping to support women's rights but, more importantly for this particular play, women's wrongs. But instead of all the enjoyment of seeing Lady M gaslighting gatekeeping girlbossing her way to the top, I got Roscille.

Roscille (aka Lady Macbeth) is seventeen, and incredibly naïve. She thinks much of her own intelligence and cunning, but every plot she hatches throughout the story inevitably fails one way or another, because she didn't account for something. All of the agency that Lady M is supposed to have is stripped away, and rather than being the driving force in the story, Roscille is dragged along by the whims of the men around her. Where the original play has her verbally abusing Macbeth and bullying him into action, here she is submissive and timid around him. He is the one in control, and she just goes where he pushes her. I do think the last 20% of this was interesting, and the writing is beautiful as always, but this could've been a really good story if it hadn't been a Macbeth retelling. I don't think it's particularly feminist, either.

The other issue I have is the portrayal of Scots, and particularly Scottish men. In one of the first chapters, we learn that Roscille has been unjustly feared by men her entire life. They call her a witch because she has strange eyes, when there's no evidence to support this. But instead of her then acknowledging that people have prejudices and that they are usually unfounded, she states with confidence that Scots are brutes, that the men all rape women, and more along those lines. I can acknowledge that, based on the time period and the prejudices running rampant, this could have been her opinion, but it could also have been challenged within the narrative by the author, which doesn't happen. From their first meeting, she's deathly afraid of Macbeth, to the point that she tries to arrange his downfall before he has even shown himself to be anything, brute or not. And the story supports her conclusions, in the end, but she couldn't have known that initially. To be clear, it's not just Macbeth who is portrayed this way. All the Scottish men surrounding her are bad, except for one—Lisander, the half Scottish/half British son of Duncane. This painting of Brits as better than Scots felt problematic to me, especially because there is still a lot of prejudice against Scottish men.

Also, the author seems to be promising dragonfucking in this book, so just to spare people the disappointment: it's not in dragon form. 

I didn't stop reading this because there was anything bad about the book. It's just that I realized midway through that I've mostly outgrown YA—that doesn't mean I don't still enjoy YA books, but it's usually the ones that lean very dark/mature (almost new adult), or are by favourite authors. 

I would still recommend this for YA readers, however. I loved all the different mythical and cultural elements. The setting felt rich and interesting, too, and it's definitely different from a lot of the YA fantasy books out there.

I honestly didn't catch much of the audiobook—I started it during a flight, and found myself dozing off. But the parts I did catch didn't inspire much confidence that I would end up enjoying the book. This mostly had to do with the way Ariadne comes across as a character. One scene that stuck out to me was her conversation with Daedalus, where she was asking him for help to rescue Theseus. He said that people had died before and she didn't save them then, did she want to save them now just for one boy? And her answer was yes.

Sounds like a case of naïve instalove to me, so I've decided to put it down. 

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those books that I'm happy I read, will absolutely recommend to people, but other than that, don't really have a lot to say about. It's a cozy, wholesome fantasy, with a cute romance, and plant companions that make for some really adorable friendships. It's about finding your place in the universe, and helping people and the world for the sake of kindness. There are merhorses, merbabies, cats with wings, and a lot of other fun elements. The nature descriptions are lovely, too.

A big part of the story is Kiela figuring out how to survive in her old home, and setting up a spellshop/jam shop, so you get parts that are just her figuring out recipes for both. It didn't quite hook me in the way Legends & Lattes did, but that may also just have been my mood. It does start off quite slow, but by the time I was halfway through, I was pretty into it.

The romance between Kiela and Larran is sweet, even though I initially thought there was a bit too much dislike for very little reason on Kiela's part. But that smoothed itself out as well.

 

This was me dipping my toes into danmei, and I think it was successful? I will say that it's necessary to keep the glossary nearby initially—all the characters have multiple names as well as titles, and there's not a lot of hand-holding in general, which makes sense.

The chapters are very long, and I personally think that drags down the pacing of the story, especially when one of the chapters is a very extended flashback. But the characters are fun to follow. Wei Wuxian is an absolute chaos gremlin, and his antics made me laugh. I can't wait to see how both the story and the romance develop. 

I really enjoyed this book while I was reading it, but I held off on reviewing, and most of what I remember now is the vibes. It sits in that creepy, unsettling horror space that I tend to prefer, especially when you add a couple of messy relationships to the mix. Those form the core and driver of this story, creepy monster in the woods notwithstanding. 

The writing was beautiful, even though it leaned purple a bit too often (not enough to be bothersome, but I did notice that it dragged a bit at the beginning, especially). There were just enough hints dropped that I was able to guess at some of the reveals, but definitely not all of them. I loved the ending in particular.