sol_journal's reviews
79 reviews

*Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!*
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph
Posted on: 21 July 2023

4 out of 5 stars.

I requested this after I read the free 1-5 chapter preview on NetGalley and realized I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I just didn’t take into account that I’m certainly not a romance first type of reader! That’s the only reason it took me so long to get through this read as I realized that the storyline was interesting, but the romance taking the front seat wasn’t really a writing style I, personally, enjoyed.

Putting my personal preferences aside- this was a good read! Angelina Lopez mixes some magic with the modern and it had me hooked to figure out what was happening and how it would play out.
Even the romance side was painted in a way that I could enjoy as somebody who doesn’t regularly read books that don’t fade to black. I loved the powerful main lead, loved the sister bonding, and, as a latina, loved the all-to-known family support even despite some differences we may have. I think that’s a large reason why I stuck it through despite it not being my typical read- because I love a good story with strong female characters and pairing it with a sort of tense yet supportive sisterhood relationship that mirrors my own siblings was a nice touch. Not to mention, we love a good romantic partner who knows what their significant other needs. This book genuinely made me want to go back and read the first in this (correct me if I’m wrong) interconnected series!

‘Full Moon Over Freedom’ was a delectable read that blended romance and a dramatic story wonderfully- and I’m kind of glad that this was my introduction into romance-focused reads as it’s truly made me interested to find a few more I may vibe with.

Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph

Posted on: 8 July 2023

Before Shiori, there was Channari- and Elizabeth Lim does an *amazing* job giving us the past of the stepmother who was once Serpent Queen.

When I saw the NetGalley listing, I KNEW I had to request this title and honestly, I hate that I did because it’s made me want to pause *all* of my current reads to go back and re-read the rest of the books that are a part of the Legends of Lor’yan. I mean, getting a taste of Channari and seeing her past? Beautiful, I absolutely *devoured* this book as quickly as I was able to.

It sounds like I’m entirely biased for this rating, and I’m trying hard not to be, so I’ll get to a few nitpicky parts.

The characters were wonderful! I loved being able to see more of Hokzuh, of Channi, and even a little surprise appearance from a certain emperor. I know a lot of importance was placed on Vanna and how beautiful she was, how she literally *glowed*, but I think this was more often brought up as a reminder to why things tipped the way they had- and why Channari fought so hard to free Vanna from this selection and everything that came after.

There were a few little plot points too that were murky, though I really think that I was so excited to read this that I skipped some key words and moments in my haste to see how it would end. (Mild Spoilers up until the end of the next paragraph!)

Like, I can’t entirely remember the reason the Serpent King bit Channari besides being there when the Witch Demon was. I kind of also wish Nakri was explained more/touched on more though she was also more a side character- just an interesting one in my opinion!

Overall, ‘Her Radiant Curse’ lived up to every idea I thought it would be. The flows of time/scene changes were a bit patchy here and there for brief moments, but to unravel Channi’s story and how she became Raikama was *amazing*. Even though readers of the Six Crimson Cranes duology know just how this story will end, you can’t help but sink into the words and hope that somehow, someway, the ending will re-write itself. I loved every page of this book, and I really cannot wait to re-read it whenever my pre-order arrives!

*Thank you Netgalley and RHCBEducators for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!*
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph
Posted on: 4 June 2023

4.8 (rounded up to 5) out of 5 stars.

This review took me some days to get around to solely for the fact that I couldn’t begin to gather my words for this piece.
Jamie Jo Hoang brings brutal honestly in ‘My Father, the Panda Killer’ and it hits as a fellow child of immigrant parents. There was no shying away from the journey to America that many children come to learn of their parents over time, striking heavy with the tale of a refugee child just trying to survive and his daughter doing the same within her own home.

Jane has lived her life ignoring her family history and heritage. She’s grown up learning to almost forget or look down on her culture until a family gathering has her realizing something- despite what they’d each gone through, her cousins feel a sort of love for their parents and she can’t help but find a constant forgiveness in her father too.
Jane begins to open up to the idea of looking into herself and showing her brother the life she has always shied away from and resented. To keep her brother from fully disappearing into himself as she has done, Jane weaves a story of her family’s past to Paul, told with the bits she’s overhead with time and the pieces she can only assume from what she already knows.

“My Father, the Panda Killer’ intwines two stories of past and present to tell a hard hitting story about Jane finding her place again and helping her brother one last time before she leaves for the next chapter of her own life.


It was so hard to think of words for this book review because it made me so *emotional* throughout the middle until the very last page. I, like Jane and like Jamie in her pre and after story letters, always shied away and couldn’t understand the ideals of my parents. While this book discusses some hard to read topics and issues (there’s a content warning that shouldn’t be ignored at the front of the book), I still think it was moving and even eye-opening as a child of immigrants. There’s things that our parents do differently than is normal in America, and it’s so hard to find this solace without other family and friends, so hard to find this boundary for yourself within whatever generational traumas are being carried. This book really made me feel so much for Jane, the imperfect main character with an imperfect family just trying to figure out how to heal.

*Thank you Netgalley and Amistad for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!*

Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph

Posted on: 27 May 2023

4.4 (rounded down to 4) out of 5 stars.

What a phenomenal collection of voices! What I *really* enjoyed was the acknowledgment and platform given to voices of mixed Latin heritage and queer identifications. In a more ‘traditional’ culture that honestly had presented itself in the past as more close minded to a lot of these groups of people and stories, I think it was *amazing* to see this mix of views being shared.

‘Daughters of Latin America’ weaves together a beautiful collection of speeches, short stories, poems, and more into parts split into the 13 Mayan Moons with themes per each part. Some of the works I found a bit harder to connect to the theme of the rest, but I think the overall gathered words were most important- and almost every single one hit.

It got a bit emotional at times, it got a bit relatable. I think as a child of immigrant parents, a lot of these stories and poems, speeches and scribbled thoughts resonate a lot more because of the shift in older values and those changes happening in these newer generations. There’s some that focused on the story of those in between two cultures which I think so many second gen (and other gens) can find home in.

Sandra Guzman does a wonderful job in arranging different views and different genres- from sci-fi and fantasy stories to real spoken speeches, from queer voices about the queer experience to the erasure of voices caught in this in-between world.

This anthology is not an easy ready to pick up if you expect to finish it quickly. It took me a while to read through it by the way it’s organized, but I enjoyed finding out a little about each creator of the piece and where their voice and experience is coming from. It was an amazingly done anthology that brought together so many different and inspirational voices of Latine women which will, hopefully, find a home within other Latine hearts.

*Thank you Netgalley and WaterBrook Multnomah for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!*
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph
Posted on: 5 May 2023

4.4 (rounded down to 4) out of 5 stars

Beautifully moving. ‘An American Immigrant’ shares a few personal experiences and tidbits with added fictional storytelling to capture Melanie Carvajal’s story of living in the inbetween. 

What Johanna Rojas Vann does so amazingly is depict the life of children of immigrants. Like Melanie, I always felt too Mexican for America yet too American for Mexico. I went so long without knowing my parents’ full story, and I also resented some part of my life for *being* stuck in that inbetween and for not feeling confident in my culture like other Mexican-Americans were.
Like Melanie, I had grieved a part of myself whenever I *did* finally find my roots again and started to find myself in this middle ground a lot of first and second generation people find themselves in. I grieved all the time I lost resenting and wishing I was either Mexican or American, not Mexican-American with the - in between. I think the story of watching Melanie get to this point was also wonderfully painted too, including descriptions of Columbia and Colombian food and music. Any Hispanic and/or Latine person knows how important food and music are for our culture too, so this extra touch about Melanie’s experiences and connections with this in Columbia was also close to home.

The characters were lovable in of themselves too, each one important to Melanie’s discovery of her home and culture. There were a few times where Melanie’s old mindset of Columbia (and thus her actions to her mother and about Columbia) grew a bit irritating. She changed with the reading of the journals, but I think those bitter actions are also something many first and second generation kids experience at least once if they never found solid footing in where they stand with themselves and their culture.
The writing fell a little short in some areas too, but overall the book was an enjoyable read. Around the middle and the end, I found myself relating to Melanie again and wanting to read more of the journals to find out what happened next.

‘An American Immigrant’ grants a look into the life of those children born in between two spaces. Johanna Rojas Vann does an *amazing* job in incorporating personal pieces to make this book come to life more and make it all the more bingable. I loved feeling seen with a novel like this and feeling that acceptance as a fellow daughter stuck in that middle space. I highly recommend this book for others who find themselves neither one side nor the other of their heritage, and discover the sense of belonging to both alongside Melanie Carvajal.

*Thank you Netgalley and One More Chapter for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!*
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph
Posted on: 7 April 2023

3.8 (rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.

Like Rani Selvarajah, I read ‘Medea’ in one of my classics class in university. I loved the story of her righting the wrongs done to her and throwing desperation back into the face of the people who tried to ruin her.

With this retelling, a lot of those same traits from the original work were featured. It has the same structure of ‘Medea’ so it made it, for the most part, predictable in what would happen or in who was supposed to represent who. I especially enjoyed the references to the original work- the Argo, the Helios, etc. It was like little Easter eggs being able to spot and figure out the translations of Euripides’ original to Selvarajah’s work.
That change in setting, focusing on colonialism by the East India Company and the VOC, definitely added some more new-ness to the take of the story.

The characters weren’t so very likable in my opinion. I mean, obviously there’s some characters you are *made* to hate, but even the ones you’re supposed to like or lean more in favor of tended to teeter a line between like and dislike.
A lot of other reviews bring up the slight modernness in the characters’s tone and voice despite the rest of the dated setting as well. Honestly, I didn’t notice this too much during my reading of it. I suppose it’s just a preference thing, but I personally didn’t feel it take away too much from the overall story. There were a few places where, briefly, the writing did feel weak or awkward though.

What I do wish would’ve been played more on was the building anger and that feeling of betrayal. Maybe it’s because I read ‘Medea’ already and knew what to expect, but I feel like those building tensions and breaking points were hit and then backed away from too suddenly.
I was totally on the edge of my seat by the end (around the 80% mark, I didn’t want to put the book down), but it also felt like the burning fire of Meena just rushed forward. I, personally, would have loved to have seen it play more into the story somehow, or constantly felt rather than just lightly mentioned when it was needed and then moving on from it. When it did finally hit at the climax of the book, it felt a bit sudden or rushed to show why Meena was doing what she was.

All in all though, ‘Savage Beasts’ was a good read. I think Rani Selvarajah delivered an *amazing* take on the classic ‘Medea’ with a touch of history that made the tale a lot heavier and hit just a tad bit harder.

*a side note: the term ‘savage’ is used based on a direct quote from one of the translations of Euripides’ play. The usage of it is limited in the actual story itself, but it’s still an uncomfortable word to see based on many opinions from the actual marginalized group it was/is still used against. This was one of the only reasons I was a bit reluctant to read this story for the usage of that word and the history behind it.
I think the way Selvarajah uses it was to also show the racism Meena saw and felt against herself as a minority in this westernized and white world, but I am not the one to excuse the use of it as I am not part of the group this would affect. I do think it’s something to not ignore, however, and I respect the viewpoints of the people who do deserve the platform to speak on this!*

*Thank you Netgalley, Inkyard Press, and Harlequin for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!*
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph
Posted on: 28 March 2023

4.6 (rounded up to 5) out of 5 stars.

This has been my first read from Kylie Lee Baker and the way I absolutely devoured this book is insane. Were it not for my personal schedule, this could’ve easily been a book that I read in one sitting- I didn’t want to put it down!

What I loved most right off the bat is the world-building and the magic system. The alchemy used in this book was interesting- albeit my first read featuring magic like it, but it had me enraptured nonetheless.
The characters were also so lovable. I’m always down for a badass sibling trio, especially when the sisters are fueled by anger and their hatred for the rich, and the brother is the occasional voice of reason who will not hesitate to dirty his hands if his sisters need help.

Quick on her feet like Honey Lemon but with all the fire and means to get what she wants like Princess Azula, Fan Zilan takes the stage as an alchemist from southern China who helps her family get by, by using a form a illegal alchemy- resurrection. By far, she is one of my favorite leads who will bloody her hands for what she thinks is just. She is not without her flaws, and has some amazing scenes of displaying her potential when pushed into a corner.
I also absolutely love seeing different (for lack of a better word) depictions of Empress Wu Zetian and Kylie Lee Baker’s was so intriguing! As her character was introduced more and more, I knew I had to finish the book and unravel the story or else I’d be left on the edge of my seat until I could pick it up again!

All in all, The Scarlet Alchemist is a MUST for those who like the darker sides of reimagined historical fantasy. Taking the darkness from Juniper and Thorn and the self-assured yet secretly insecure main leads from These Violent Delights, and mixing them with the vibes of ‘Gilded Lily’ by Cults and ‘Show You A Body’ by Haley Heynderickx (to name a few), you get the binge-able story that is ‘The Scarlet Alchemist’. I cannot wait to catch up with the rest of Kylie Lee Baker’s books while awaiting the second installment to this series!

This is my first Amie Kaufman book so I had no idea what to expect beyond its summary. I was relative pleased with the story though! It was based heavily on the seas which is a setting I’ve really come to love and enjoy. The world-building alongside it was spectacular too. It was amazingly done down to the very sights of the other ships and the places they travel through. It helped to truly get immersed in with the characters and what they went through also as if blending in alongside them while they traveled the Port Naranda and voyaged to the Isles of the Gods.

On to the characters though. I think I have a strong unpopular opinion here when I say that I enjoyed every character- even Laskia. Leander had to grow on me though. He was about every inch full of himself and arrogant, and I definitely had to see more of his backstory before coming around to eventually liking him.

On the side of sacrifices though, what Selly and Keegan went through and gave up easily made them on the higher side of my favorites list. Especially for Keegan who just unfortunately was on the wrong ship at the wrong time, getting himself roped into something larger than he could’ve imagined. Selly also lost a lot, yet continuously moved forward and forward- displaying the strength she had and yet also showing her flaws from that constant self-push.

The characters were pretty well done and I loved seeing their changes, their growth and declines with how they chose to handle what was thrown to them.

This book has a few typical tropes of it, and the romance arc was all sweet and cute- I personally just felt it was pushed a bit suddenly from a gradual warming up to each other to suddenly relying on one another. Still though, it was a sweet thing to see unravel.

There are a lot of places in the book like this, however. For the most part, it has a slow moving pace considering everything happens in the span of some days. The beginning was especially slow as it was the introduction to the magic system, to the divinity system, and to the characters. Even then, I liked the pace as it didn’t throw everything to you at once. You get snippets throughout and in ways that doesn’t seem like information dumps.

‘The Isles of the Gods’ was a book to win me over when I wasn’t expecting it to. From its maritime descriptions to its slumbering gods who still demand prayers and gifts, Amie Kaufman’s latest release has me excited for what’s next! I can’t wait to see the aftermath of what’s happened in book one and see how it goes for the characters in book two!

4.2 (rounded down to 4) out of 5 stars.  

‘House of Roots and Ruin’ was a beautifully spun thrill of a story. When I heard we were getting another installment following a Thaumas sister, I didn’t think it would be like this! It is definitely for fans of indie horror rpg ‘Mad Father’- it’s full of the same thrilling, family secret heavy, blood behind the beauty story of a girl trapped in a whirlwind of the past resurfacing for closure.  

Verity Thaumas is still cursed by her past. Seeing ghosts and things beyond their realm, she’s haunted by secrets in the rebuilt Highmoor and when things come to light, she flees to Chauntilalie where only darker secrets and pasts await. 

Erin Craig delivers her usual spooky read again with HORAR, and it was so binge-able, I was reading page after page whenever I could on vacation- so queue lines were definitely bearable!

As some others have said, the story is a little slow in the beginning. It’s a lot of introduction and getting a feel for Verity, filling readers in on little tidbits of what has happened since HOSAS.

I’ll also agree a bit that the romance arc of this moved on a little fast. It was a little hard to follow along with the swiftness of the two getting together, but it was all sweet nonetheless.

And of course, it wouldn’t be an Erin Craig book without plot twists! Just when you think you’ve figured out what is going on, she throws you in for another loop that’s got you wanting to read more. It gets a little messy, so be sure you keep up with names and remember- don’t stop to smell the flowers if you ever find yourself visiting Bloem 🌺