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Jamie (131 KP) rated Naja (volumes 1-5) in Books
Jun 4, 2017
An underwhelming and strange assassin mystery
What a shame. The comic had an interesting concept and started off pretty well but in the end was really lacking. Naja is a badass to be certain, but she has almost no personality. She was the stereotypical ruthless femme fatale and not much more than that. The other assassins from Zero’s organization were genuinely interesting and the fights were memorable. I just wish I could have cared more about Naja. The plot drags for the first few volumes and I had wished for a little more from the story.
I ended up regretting that wish.
The more that was revealed, the more it just seemed like torture porn. The sad part is, even after some traumatic experiences from Naja’s past was revealed, I didn’t find myself feeling much more for her character.
The comic crashed and burned spectacularly with the final volume honestly leaving me feeling rather angry and disgusted. It seemed to me that the story was almost like a twisted retelling of Romeo and Juliet, tragic star crossed lovers each hailing from rival families with a sprinkling of incest. It was disturbing in the worst way possible and I honestly wish I hadn’t finished the series off.
On the bright side, the art style is modern and edgy and very easily one of the best aspects of the comic. The action sequences are fast and bloody and were fun to read. Overall I can’t recommend this one given the weak story, but Bengal’s art is definitely something to admire.
I ended up regretting that wish.
The more that was revealed, the more it just seemed like torture porn. The sad part is, even after some traumatic experiences from Naja’s past was revealed, I didn’t find myself feeling much more for her character.
The comic crashed and burned spectacularly with the final volume honestly leaving me feeling rather angry and disgusted. It seemed to me that the story was almost like a twisted retelling of Romeo and Juliet, tragic star crossed lovers each hailing from rival families with a sprinkling of incest. It was disturbing in the worst way possible and I honestly wish I hadn’t finished the series off.
On the bright side, the art style is modern and edgy and very easily one of the best aspects of the comic. The action sequences are fast and bloody and were fun to read. Overall I can’t recommend this one given the weak story, but Bengal’s art is definitely something to admire.
Dana (24 KP) rated Crimson Bound in Books
Mar 23, 2018
I gave this review a 4.5 out of 5 stars. While I mostly enjoyed it, there was that pesky love triangle that always seems to make me like a book a little less.
This is a loose retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. While there are some major theme similarities and some small details that are the same, I didn't get the full feeling of Little Red Riding Hood like I did with Beauty and the Beast in Cruel Beauty. I still enjoyed the story though.
I liked how there was another fairy tale being woven into the story being told. And the mythology of the world was stunning. I loved the idea of the woodwives and how it is actually the women who were charged to save the world. Talk about girl power!
I liked reading about Rachelle's development as a character and how she is continuously battling the Great Forest inside of her. And Amelie's relationship with Rachelle was so sweet. It really felt like they were most themselves and most at peace when they were with each other.
I really enjoyed reading about the imagery and contrasts between the light and dark. It captured how the characters are living in the light, clinging to their hope for a better world while they live in a dying one.
I only wish there were more ties to Cruel Beauty and those story lines, especially since I fell in love with that world so easily.
I recommend this to anyone who like fun and interesting takes on fairy tales, folk tales, new mythologies, or high fantasy novels.
This is a loose retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. While there are some major theme similarities and some small details that are the same, I didn't get the full feeling of Little Red Riding Hood like I did with Beauty and the Beast in Cruel Beauty. I still enjoyed the story though.
I liked how there was another fairy tale being woven into the story being told. And the mythology of the world was stunning. I loved the idea of the woodwives and how it is actually the women who were charged to save the world. Talk about girl power!
I liked reading about Rachelle's development as a character and how she is continuously battling the Great Forest inside of her. And Amelie's relationship with Rachelle was so sweet. It really felt like they were most themselves and most at peace when they were with each other.
I really enjoyed reading about the imagery and contrasts between the light and dark. It captured how the characters are living in the light, clinging to their hope for a better world while they live in a dying one.
I only wish there were more ties to Cruel Beauty and those story lines, especially since I fell in love with that world so easily.
I recommend this to anyone who like fun and interesting takes on fairy tales, folk tales, new mythologies, or high fantasy novels.
Merissa (14013 KP) rated End of Ever After: A Cinderella Retelling in Books
Nov 14, 2018
End of Ever After A Cinderella Retelling by E.L. Tenenbaum
End of Ever After is the first in a series of fairy tale re-tellings by E.L. Tenenbaum. After reading this one about CinderElla, I can only say that I WILL be reading the others. This was a fantastic re-telling of the original story, rather than the Disney version. I loved how it was played out, told as past and present tense intermingle, giving you hints of what is to come without knowing the full details.
I thought the names given to the characters were excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed putting the descriptions of the characters and their new names to the ones I already know. Some of the characters hide their truths, others wear them as a shield. Either way, this book is full of characters to love or loathe. I will say from the start that Matteus was a favourite of mine, and I only hope for a HEA in his future! As for the ending here? Sheer perfection for the story. I couldn't envisage it any other way, and don't want to either.
With no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading, I found this book to be wonderfully paced, giving a rich story without too many or not enough embellishments. I loved this world, and can't wait to return to it. Absolutely recommended by me.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
I thought the names given to the characters were excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed putting the descriptions of the characters and their new names to the ones I already know. Some of the characters hide their truths, others wear them as a shield. Either way, this book is full of characters to love or loathe. I will say from the start that Matteus was a favourite of mine, and I only hope for a HEA in his future! As for the ending here? Sheer perfection for the story. I couldn't envisage it any other way, and don't want to either.
With no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading, I found this book to be wonderfully paced, giving a rich story without too many or not enough embellishments. I loved this world, and can't wait to return to it. Absolutely recommended by me.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Frankenstein in Baghdad in Books
Jul 23, 2019
This book won at least two awards; the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and France's Grand Prize for Fantasy, and the author had previously been named one of the 39 best Arab authors under the age of 39. I picked it up to read for the Year of the Asian Reading Challenge, since the Middle East is all-too-often neglected in regional groupings like that. People don't think of it as Europe or Asia. I also try to read translated books on occasion, in an effort to diversify my reading. So this hit a number of my interests - I wish I had actually liked the book more!
It's an interesting retelling of Frankenstein - which I haven't actually read, and now feel like I really should. But it bounces around between several viewpoints. It's not too many to keep straight, but it's definitely too many to truly care about. And it suffers from an unreliable narrator - it's written as several stories told to an author from multiple people that he's woven together into a single narrative, and while he does that well, it suffers from contradictions between how different characters recall things, scenes that don't play a part in furthering the plot but the characters thought they were important, and no authoritative "this is what REALLY happened" to draw it all together.
And I very much dislike unreliable narrators, so that alone is enough to make me dislike the book. If you like ambiguous narratives and vigilante stories, however, you might enjoy this, and the writing style itself was quite engrossing.
You can find all my reviews and more at http://goddessinthestacks.com
It's an interesting retelling of Frankenstein - which I haven't actually read, and now feel like I really should. But it bounces around between several viewpoints. It's not too many to keep straight, but it's definitely too many to truly care about. And it suffers from an unreliable narrator - it's written as several stories told to an author from multiple people that he's woven together into a single narrative, and while he does that well, it suffers from contradictions between how different characters recall things, scenes that don't play a part in furthering the plot but the characters thought they were important, and no authoritative "this is what REALLY happened" to draw it all together.
And I very much dislike unreliable narrators, so that alone is enough to make me dislike the book. If you like ambiguous narratives and vigilante stories, however, you might enjoy this, and the writing style itself was quite engrossing.
You can find all my reviews and more at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Ross (3284 KP) rated Dispel Illusion in Books
Jan 3, 2020
A consistent end to the trilogy
The D&D time-travel series comes to and end with this third book. Here the action is split between a timeline in the 90s following the first two books, with a future narrative of Nick's adult life in the 2000s and 2010s, and finishing up with a retelling of the events of the first book, from "future Nick's" PoV.
I still have issues with the science, multiverse and time-travel execution here as with the first books, but appreciate the way the story was woven together. Some of Lawrence's fantasy books have the different timeline feature and once again he expertly weaves them together so the overall story emerges at a good pace.
At one point, I thought the book was going to go down the Bill & Ted route as a cop-out ("in the future we will come back to this point and leave this key here and voila here it is") but this was actually quite well handled and wasn't the cop-out I feared.
The book benefits from a more stretched timeline as we see significant events from Nick's adult life, rather than dwelling on his teenage years solely. Likewise there is more of a focus on the D&D, which was somewhat lacking in book 2, and with key learnings from that featuring in the real world storyline.
Overall, I think I enjoyed this series, but I have my hang-ups about time-travel and multiverse theories in general. A good bit of escapism, if a little heavy on the pretend science at times.
I still have issues with the science, multiverse and time-travel execution here as with the first books, but appreciate the way the story was woven together. Some of Lawrence's fantasy books have the different timeline feature and once again he expertly weaves them together so the overall story emerges at a good pace.
At one point, I thought the book was going to go down the Bill & Ted route as a cop-out ("in the future we will come back to this point and leave this key here and voila here it is") but this was actually quite well handled and wasn't the cop-out I feared.
The book benefits from a more stretched timeline as we see significant events from Nick's adult life, rather than dwelling on his teenage years solely. Likewise there is more of a focus on the D&D, which was somewhat lacking in book 2, and with key learnings from that featuring in the real world storyline.
Overall, I think I enjoyed this series, but I have my hang-ups about time-travel and multiverse theories in general. A good bit of escapism, if a little heavy on the pretend science at times.
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Red and Her Wolf (Kingdom Seires #3) in Books
Nov 30, 2020
199 of 200
Kindle
Red and her Wolf ( Kingdom book 3)
By Marie Hall
Long ago there lived a beautiful child. Her name was Violet. Fair of skin, with blonde hair and large blue eyes. Born of wild magic, she was a woman with a child's heart. Innocent and lovely, but not at all what she seemed--you see Violet went by another name: The Heartsong.
She was the child of fairy magic, the physical manifestation of all fae kinds unbridled power. Cosseted and pampered, she grew up in isolation, never knowing who she really was, or why there were those who'd seek to harm her.
Ewan of the Blackfoot Clan is a wolf with a problem. He's been sent to kill the Heartsong, but the moment he lays eyes on the blonde beauty he knows he'll defy the evil fae he works for to claim Violet as his own.
This is the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, as it really happened...
This is not an erotica, just a good old fashioned romance.
Think this is my favourite so far. A twisted retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and it was so good! I love my fairytales and always sort of cringe when they are redone I like how Marie Hall tells her version of these tales. I enjoyed the first two and this one so far was definitely my favourite giving Red a whole new look and purpose! I’d love a big bad wolf of they came like Ewan. Was also nice to pop in on Alice and the Hatter!!
Kindle
Red and her Wolf ( Kingdom book 3)
By Marie Hall
Long ago there lived a beautiful child. Her name was Violet. Fair of skin, with blonde hair and large blue eyes. Born of wild magic, she was a woman with a child's heart. Innocent and lovely, but not at all what she seemed--you see Violet went by another name: The Heartsong.
She was the child of fairy magic, the physical manifestation of all fae kinds unbridled power. Cosseted and pampered, she grew up in isolation, never knowing who she really was, or why there were those who'd seek to harm her.
Ewan of the Blackfoot Clan is a wolf with a problem. He's been sent to kill the Heartsong, but the moment he lays eyes on the blonde beauty he knows he'll defy the evil fae he works for to claim Violet as his own.
This is the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, as it really happened...
This is not an erotica, just a good old fashioned romance.
Think this is my favourite so far. A twisted retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and it was so good! I love my fairytales and always sort of cringe when they are redone I like how Marie Hall tells her version of these tales. I enjoyed the first two and this one so far was definitely my favourite giving Red a whole new look and purpose! I’d love a big bad wolf of they came like Ewan. Was also nice to pop in on Alice and the Hatter!!
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