spicycronereads's reviews
216 reviews

I think the narrator is AI.

Just not in the right frame of mind for it right now. Will come back to it later.

The same pacing and humor as the first book though the plot is less predictable. There is fake dating! One bed! Touch her and die!

The addition of Serce’s point of view from nearly 300 years prior builds the mystery around what happened in the Heart Queendom. There are a couple of inconsistencies that I am willling to see if or how they are resolved in subsequent books.

The biggest one being how Lor can see portraits of Serce and Wolf hanging in the Heart castle if they were killed during the binding - so waiting to see if they are actually killed

The secondary characters are slightly more developed in this book. 

The spice also amplifies a bit though it is still a slow burn between Lor and Nadir. 🌶️🌶️🌶️

It is the same richly diverse world as the first book, with the influences of Tuli’s south Asian heritage slightly more pronounced. 

Overall it was a fast, fun read and I look forward to seeing where the next book goes. I will definitely read book three immediately. The fourth and final book comes out in the Fall and I am excited to see how it all wraps up. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/ 🌶️🌶️🌶️

This book starts out really strong! Lor the FMC is imprisoned with her siblings and is known for getting into trouble. She is smart and funny and indomitable. And she loves Tristan and Willow, her two older siblings.

When she is the human tribute selected to participate in the sun queen trials, every move she makes is to protect them.  Trials test physical strength but also reveal Lor’s character. 

We also get POV chapters from Nadir, the prince of Aurora, which is the territory that held Lor as prisoner for half of her life. 

Th pacing is quite good and the writing is often sharply funny. Some plot points are quite predictable but it is fun getting there all the same. I saw the book described as ACOTAR meets The Hunger Games and that seems pretty spot on. 

The secondary characters are fairly flat, with the exception of Gabriel, around whom there is a bit of mystery.

There is a slow burn love interest and some spice. I’d give it two chili peppers. 🌶️🌶️

There is a fair amount of diverse representation with almost every character having some shade of brown skin and many secondary characters in queer relationships or flings. Lor and Nadir are both brown-skinned with dark wavy hair.

Overall it is a fast, fun read that sets up events for the next book (which is less predictable imo). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️

I really loved this. It took a little while to get into it. It’s different from anything I’ve ever read. It definitely reads as more literary fiction than science fiction. It’s clear that the writers have a great love of literature and writing and language. 

it’s difficult to assess racial diversity because we know almost nothing about these two characters and how they look. However, we do know that they seem to be two female identified characters so there is some sexual diversity.

There’s no spiciness, but there is quite a bit of swooniness. Which is a pretty remarkable feat given that the characters are constantly crossing paths in time and space, but don’t spend any time together on page. 💖💖💖💖

Overall, I loved it. There’s sapphic romance, there’s time travel, there are epistolary chapters, there are literary references galore. And there are multiple swoony moments.  It was a very fast read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lore of the Wilds centers on a world where humans have been mysteriously displaced from their home world and subjugated by Fae. Lore ends up traveling from her human enclave to be assigned the task of organizing an enchanted library that the Fae have been cursed from entering.

There is lots to like about this book. it has a very diverse cast, including racial and sexual diversity. Lore is a typical YA fantasy heroine who impetuously faces danger to save those she cares about. The magic system is interesting. The orders of Fae are novel and the tension between them adds some drama.

I say that Lore is a YA heroine, but I’m not actually sure this is supposed to be a YA book. It is maybe new adult based on Lore‘s age, the hints of SA, and the one spicy scene in the book. But Lore’s impetuousness, and the nature of the relationships between her and other characters lacks maturity.

There are four potential love interests, so it is less of a love triangle than a love pentagon? 😂 The chemistry and tension between these characters is a bit uneven. And sometimes we are told that feelings are developing rather than being shown that they are developing.

The plot takes some interesting twists, and some confusing turns. The pacing is a bit off. Things that feel like they could be the focus of the entire novel are resolved pretty quickly. To give you a sense of this, there is no plot point that results in what I would consider graphic content warnings because they all stay at the surface and are resolved really quickly. 

There’s just a lot crammed in there and while the sequels could take their time unraveling much of this, at the end, there’s an indication that it’s going to take another turn all together. And I was very surprised to see that it is part of a duology and not a longer series. Which suggests that answers and explanations to the many things that are going on may not be forthcoming.

There is some pining in the book. Finndryl does provide one or two almost-swoony moments. The spicy scene is not bad but it feels out of place. 🌶️

In terms of diversity, most of the characters are people of color. There are a few moments that hint that Lore is bi or pan. And one character seems to be definitely aro and possibly ace.

Overall, I was entertained. I will likely read the next book in the series. And I hope that the next one goes through some more extensive developmental editing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/🌶️

I am struggling with how to review this book. On one hand it was everything I wanted for the characters at the end of this 12-book series. On the other, it was missing some of the things that I love about the other books that came before it.

The conflicts all seem to be overcome really quickly and some things that seemed like a really big deal end up kind of going nowhere, confirming my suspicions that the authors stretched this so they could get their perfect 12 books to align with the 13 zodiac signs. 

The last third of the book is all battle scenes so it is missing the humor and spice that I think of as hallmarks of Zodiac Academy.

But the fact that they didn’t kill anyone off balances that out!

Overall I laughed, I cried, I rejoiced for those who got their happy endings. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/🌶️🌶️🌶️

I listened to this as an audiobook. And first, let me say the narration by Imogen Church was top-notch. Whatever the awards are for audiobook performances, I hope she gets one. I felt so emotionally connected to the character and so emotionally invested in the story because of her performance. 

I’m not even sure I would’ve felt the same if I had been reading it with my eyeballs. Even so it’s a pretty intense story with lots of twist and turns.

and I think this is the only time I have ever been happy about a surprise pregnancy

The pacing, the characters, the twist and turns, and the resolution all add up to a five star read for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

On the surface this is a SciFi thriller about multiverse travel. But at heart it is about fate, found family, and the violence of classism, racism, colonialism, and homophobia. The writing is quite fluid and sometimes beautifully poetic.

The first ten percent or so takes patience as you get oriented to the world and the mechanics of how multiverse travel works, but after that it is engrossing, with dynamically flawed characters and twists galore. 

The book has rich secondary characters whose development is rounded out by meeting the same characters in different worlds.

There is a bit of romance between the main character Cara and her colleague Dell. There is plentiful pining, punctuated with occasional moments of potential. I give it one swoony heart 💖 

This book has quite a lot of diverse representation. Not only are Cara and Dell in a sapphic romance, but they are both women of color: Cara and other characters are Black, while Dell is Asian. The book deals with attitudes toward queer relationships as well as with the intersection of class, race, and sexuality. 

Overall I found this to be a beautiful read. I was excited to see that Johnson’s next book is set in the same world, centered on a tertiary character from this book. I will definitely read it! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 💖

The first half is very interesting but it did not read like a thriller until the second half. Seeds of mystery are planted along the way that keep your interest. And the history is fascinating.

The thriller aspects really picked up and all the pieces started coming together in the second half in a way that really paid off. And there are a few jaw dropping moments! 

The dynamic between Sydney and Theo really works. They have fun banter and he seems like he is genuinely interested is learning to do better. There is one spicy scene but otherwise the focus is really on the events in the neighborhood. 1/2 🌶️

The audio book performances are great. 

Overall I found it engaging! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / .5 🌶️