February has come to an end and that means another reading wrap up. This month I read 4 books including the second book in the popular Fourth Wing series.
All in all, I'm not all that impressed but I tend to not enjoy books that are very popular. Especially if they're very popular before they're even out. I'm still happy for anyone who loves these series though, love what you love!
I'm excited to learn about the characters and stories that are so popular with so many book lovers, even if I don't personally love them to the same degree.
Book 4.5: Ice Planet Honeymoon: Rukh & Harlow | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Another cute novella from Ruby Dixon, a great feel-good read. I loved how she illustrated communication problems for this couple in a way that felt super realistic and not annoying. Like it wasn't the miscommunication trope where all they need to do is talk to each other but for some reason they won't. They both just genuinely had different ideas about what was best and then did talk about how to merge their different way of doing things so they could operate better as a team. I just love the helathy insights her couples give on real relationships. |
Iron Flame (Empyrian 2) | ⭐⭐ | This book felt a little all over the place and I didn't understand half of what was going on. But the part that lost me the most was when we learn (spoilers) that Xaden is an intinsic and we're supposed to be shocked by this info when Xaden and Violet have literally been reading each other's minds since very early on in book 1. Then were were supposed to feel so betrayed that he hadn't told her about this secret of his yet when she knows firsthand why he would keep this a secret, or we were supposed to feel betrayed because now maybe her feelings were manipulated since he could read her thoughts BUT then we learn that he literally can't actually read thoughts, he can just read "intentions" so don't worry reader, Xaden is safe from being canceled for any ability that could remotely compromise full consent, but Violet's gonna go ahead and feel betrayed for awhile anyway for the sake of the plot. This plot point really lost me. |
Throne of Glass (TOG 1) | ⭐⭐⭐ | Starting the Throne of Glass series I was rather bummed to learn that this book essentially takes place at "assassin school." I know the format of a school, academy, or gauntlet provides a lot of plot structure but I just find it so boring, I just want to skip right to the interpersonal dilemmas and skip the push ups, trainings, and lectures about different kinds of weapons and poisons. Later in the story when we get to the magical lore, the word marks, and the secret magical murders taking place by hidden rune portals is where this book got way more interesting to me. I thought that was super clever. The story lost me a bit with Celaena being only 18 years old, like not even 19 years old, only 18 years old, it made a lot of her story feel pretty unbelievable to me so I liked to pretend she was actually like 26 at least. I also felt some whiplash from the whole Dorian will they won't they thing, I felt like the author couldn't decide whether they were endgame or not so there would be really beautiful lines about how he can't imagine life with anyone else but actually nevermind let's just be friends actually? I may also just be more used to dedicated romance writers who make love interest plotlines way more clear and I personally like that. |
The Assassin's Blade (TOG 0.5) | ⭐⭐ | I was excited to get more backstory and lore on Celaena. She has so much potential to be a really interesting character. I should really like a story about a feral girl who grew up with the king of assassin's as a father who trained her to be the best assassin in the land. But this book really didn't tell us anything new and made Celaena's character more confusing to me. She takes great pride in being the best assassin, but her moral alignment suggests she should not want to be an assassin. There's even a line in this book where Sam is like, "We can't be like that" referring to this evil guy Farran who kills people, Celaena literally responds, "We're not like Farran, we know how to do it but we don't enjoy it, that's the difference." like really? You say you don't like assassinating people but now that you're free you still choose to do it and one of your reasons is money because you like fancy things. Her saying she doesnt like killing doesn't even make sense either since she's out of the guild here and can literally choose to do anything else but literally wants to start an assassins guild of her own. I also really hated how much we were supposed to hate Lysandra who was literally trained since a child to be a prostitute. When Celaena finds out the assassin king bought her virginitiy and slept with Lysandra, Celaena is enraged with jealousy and even throws a knife really close to Lysandra's face out of anger. That was wild to me. We were supposed to feel so betrayed and hate Lysandra so much and I honestly was just really appalled at Celaena who had no interest in saving this girl that could have so easily been her own situation and instead slut shames this child who was forced into prostitution. Just wild, I almost wish I didn't read this book because now I honestly don't like Celaena after that. |