sol_journal's reviews
82 reviews

*Thank you Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!*
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph
Posted on: 10 August 2023

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

‘Atana and the Firebird’ was such a lovely story with a cute art style to illustrate its tale. This is aimed for a younger audience (definitely more middle grade, maybe even young adult range) yet I still found so much to love about this easy read!
When I first requested this book, I didn’t know that it was set to be a duology, so as I neared the end, I was getting worried that it would be a rushed finish to the story- then I saw it was expecting a second installment. Thankfully, there is no rushed wrap-up to this tale, giving readers enough time with this main trio that you kind of grow to love while reading! 
The characters started to go through bits of growth in this first part of the story, showing naiveness in a world that they didn’t fully understand nor explore yet until they meet with the mysterious Witch Queen. Here, Cosmos comes in- another friend for the, now, trio and a helpful ally as the truth of what they sought starts to unravel. 

I wish this story would have been longer! I absolutely adored the main cast we have and the little twists and turns in this first half. With the expectation of more to come though, Vivian Zhou will *definitely* have me awaiting for the next part of this to release. This was such a cute read that I honestly think many readers can come to enjoy. It’s certainly not a standalone that I see other reviewers made the mistake of believing as well, but it was such a nice paced read that the length and the cliffhanger of it wasn’t terrible! Besides waiting for the next book to see where our characters will go from here, I think this is the perfect read for those seeking something fun and easy with a nice story to its art and great characters to follow along with!

*Thank you BookSirens! I received this ARC for free and am voluntarily leaving an honest review!*

Posted to: BookSirens, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph

Posted on: 7 August 2023

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

This is my first read from N.C Scrimgeour, but the summary seemed interesting and by the end of it, I was *hooked*. I saw the title on BookSirens and figured I’d try it as I liked the maritime theme in ‘The Isles of the Gods’ so I figured I’d try another sea-based setting.

This did not disappoint.

Scrimgeour has amazing detail and scene setting. It was a little slow for me at the beginning and I struggled find the rhythm of it, but once I found my footing, I couldn’t put this one down (roughly started around the midway point). I think I really enjoyed the magic system here too, along with the lore mingled in.

There’s a nice little romance that’s pretty obvious to pinpoint out from the beginning, but I personally didn’t like it all too well. Spoilers here until the end of this paragraph!!! Darce guarded the royal family (and I think he is roughly around 6 years older than Isla if I understood the mention of it well). That’s not weird, it’s kind of my favorite trope when it’s done right (legal age gaps, ya know?), but there wasn’t much a build-up for the chemistry there. They go from Isla being the ‘wolf cub’ who was an annoyance to keep in line and Darce being this overbearing guard to suddenly they’re catching each other’s gazes and being over-protective in a different sense than before. I *did* like the implied dynamic though, don’t get me wrong, just think the flow of it could’ve been a bit smoother or painted out more.

There were a few times where some relationships were kind of fleshed out more and other times, the bonds kind of implied to have grown from what they endured together. It wasn’t too rough, but the little jumps were there. There was also this secret to why Isla hated/felt uncomfortable with other nobles that was always mentioned, but avoided every time. We kind of find out why she dislikes one character eventually, but it doesn’t really make up for much of the disappointment and hate she’s bringing up a lot before (or maybe it did, but it happened during the slower bits where I was still finding my footing within the story’s pace and writing). I also wish we’d know more about the Sea Kith, as the ones we do get to see are so interesting that I was left wanting to know more about the relationship they end up having with our main group.

Overall, though, I think I will be excitedly awaiting the second book to this! There was a twist towards the end that I didn’t entirely guess, but it left me wanting more. There was enough resolved, yet enough left behind to still unravel, and I think it’s safe to say I’m a fan of whatever else is yet to come from this selkie story!

*Thank you Netgalley and Del Rey for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!*
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph
Posted on: 28 July 2023

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

‘Silver Nitrate’ was a book that when I first saw the summary, I was a little iffy on if it was one I’d like. Now, I *loved* a few of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s previous books- ‘Gods of Jade and Shadow’, ‘The Beautiful Ones’, and ‘Velvet Was The Night’. I knew her writing style well to know that I’d most likely *enjoy* her books regardless. I just figured that this new read would be a mood-read kind of book where I’d pick it up when I found myself *craving* a cursed movie title centering Nazi occultism, rough main characters, and stuff of fiction bleeding into two normal people’s reality. When I got approved for this eARC after all, I decided to just jump right in and, man, was it a *phenomenal* read at the end. 

‘Silver Nitrate’ shows the ugly of characters as well as it shows their ability to work together in the face of other’s ugly. Monserrat and Tristán were a duo that I found myself in love with from the start. They had a dynamic that grew and burned into what was the ending scene and I *loved* it SO much. There was just something about their flaws- one’s cowardice and the other’s unhealthy dive into what she finds interesting- being highlighted and then *actually* working through them at some point that grabbed me.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the magic system. I know the premise was in-story built by not so good people, but Silvia Moreno-Garcia creates this interesting system that almost had me like Monserrat in that I wanted to know more! I don’t know how much of real world occultism was used to help base the magic in ‘Silver Nitrate’ though, but the entwining of it *and* the idea of movies being more magic than what meets the eye was enthralling.
I think I’ve got a major book hangover with ‘Silver Nitrate’ though because I want more reads *just* like it. I want to know what happens after the ending and I honestly just need more Monserrat and Tristán! I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy so I can read it all over again (and annotate it this time!)

*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!