Category: Book review

“A Court of Mist and Fury” By Sarah J. Maas Review

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Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she’s now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people. As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre’s hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.

This book is the second book in the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, and I gotta say that so far I’m actually liking this series. Before getting into this series I thought it would one of those very overhyped YA series which I would end up hating. But after reading the 2 first books in this series I gotta say that so far I’m actually loving this series. 

This book takes the plot of this further and we learn more about the whole universe and about the world’s politics system in a way. 

This book involves less romance aspect but more world building and action which worked for me. Because I was getting a little tired of all the romance in the series from reading the previous book in this series. And thankfully this book focuses the majority of the book on action and on showing us Feyre learning how to control her powers and use them. At the same time this book involves less of the sexual moments which wasn’t that disappointing for me personally.

The characters in this book are so much better than in the first book in this series. Its easy to see that all the characters had a lot of character development and growth from the first book and I personally loved it.

Somehow this book manages to make me love Feyre and Rhysand more than what I did after reading the first book in the series.

At the same time this book adds more characters into the universe, and I gotta say that those new character as well written and made as the characters we got to know in the first book. 

The writing style in this book as in the first book is very very good. Since its like the author know exactly what words to use to completely grab my attention and not let it go until the very end of the book.

The ending of this book is very satisfying and truly worth reading the entire 600+ pages of this book. Yes it might leave us at a cliffhanger but for me it works just fine but I already love this series a lot and the cliffhanger at the end of this book made me want to read the 3rd book in this series even more than I already did.

I Give This Book 4 / 5

“Star Wars: Shadow Games” By Michael Reaves & Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff Review

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Javul Charn is the most famous pop star in the galaxy—and the runaway bride of a violent lieutenant in Black Sun, the crime syndicate commanded by Prince Xizor. Or so Javul says. Soon after Dash Rendar, broke and desperate, agrees to be Javul’s bodyguard, he realizes that openness is not her strong suit—and that murder is stalking her tour. Between the discovery of dead bodies in a cargo hold and an attack by an unidentified warship, Dash and co-pilot Eaden Vrill desperately try to understand who is terrorizing Javul’s tour and why. When Han Solo suddenly joins Javul’s road show, the stakes are raised even higher. Now Dash, who has a history with Han and an even worse history with Prince Xizor, follows his instincts, his discoveries, and Javul herself—straight into a world that may be too dangerous to survive.

I gotta say that this book is far from being one of the best Star Wars books I’ve read. Sure I haven’t read a lot of star wars books yet but after reading some of them I gotta say that this book is okay. 

This book has a very unique premise and plot when it comes to the Star Wars universe. Since the plot in this book follows the biggest pop star in the Star Wars universe. And this premise for a plot is the first book I come across which in the star wars universe which follows a pop star in the universe. 

The plot in this book also involves a fair share of shooting action and spacecraft action which really makes this book fun to read. But the action here isn’t as fun as in some other Star Wars books I’ve read which really didn’t impress me much in the “action” category.

After reading this book I need to say that this book feels more like a Sci-Fi Neo noir rather than a star wars books. Because there is no real star wars politician struggle, lightsaber battles, sith lords, jedi knights and all of the other stuff which makes Star Wars. 

The only connection this book has to star wars other than being part of the Star Wars book universe is that this book mentions the Rebel Alliance once and Han Solo appearance in the story in the second half of this book. Other than that there are no connection indicating that this book is in fact a Star Wars book universe.

The plot in this book feels at times very long and unnecessarily longer than it needed to be. My opinion is that this book could have cut out at least 50 pages or so and it would make this book longer. Because of the fact that this book drags for far too long at times.

The characters here are okay for the most part. We get very few characters in this book but those we get are very average characters. The characters here are okay but there isn’t a lot of depth to them and they don’t have the same feeling like the OG characters from the Star Wars which made us fall in love with them from the moment we saw them. 

The writing style in this book is pretty okay but it has the feeling that it was written by multiple authors which of course is the case in this book. The feeling of this book being written by multiple authors is the duality of this book because during the action moments the writing style feels like being written by a man (Michael Reaves) and during other moments the main character Dash gets very emotions and goes on those 5 pages long monologs like a female would do which makes the writing style feel like it was written by a woman (Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff).

However if you are looking for a stand alone star wars book to read then this book could be a good choice. Since this book is easy to read, its a quick read and it doesn’t have a connection to other books you should have read before reading this book.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Darth Plagueis” By James Luceno Review

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Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, Master and acolyte, target the galaxy for domination–and the Jedi Order for annihilation. But can they defy the merciless Sith tradition? Or will the desire of one to rule supreme, and the dream of the other to live forever, sow the seeds of their destruction?

This book gives us background information which takes place before “Revenge of the Sith” movie. And we finally learn all about the “Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise”.

I gotta say that after reading this book Darth Plagueis. I gotta admit that he became one of my favorite characters from Star Wars. Because there are a lot of aspects about him that makes him deserve his own show.

If you have read the Darth Maul books and Star Wars comic series you will notice that this book reuses information about Darth Plagueis rather than giving us some new info about Darth Plagueis. But this book book gives us this information in its unique way so dont worry this book doesn’t feel like reading Darth Maul books. 

The writing style in this book is very good. It feels like the author knew what words to use to completely grab your attention and not let it go until the very end. The writing style played very well with the plot and action of this book which really made me give this book some extra points for doing that.

The ending of this book is very very good. Its very satisfying and it is something we as the readers deserved after reading the entire book. The ending of this book also gives us a lot of potential of sequels of this book and like this could be a part of a series about Darth Sidious.

This book involves a lot of characters we already know about like Darth Maul, Count Dock and it mentions characters like Anakin, Padme,  Obi Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn, Yoda but we also get some more of the characters we can see in the movies and series. 

This book is very slow and it contains a lot of political intrigues and action rather than the lightsaber action. We get real Sith action at the end of this book but other than that the real action is Darth Sidious as Sheev Palpatine doing his political schemes. 

If you want to learn more about Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious than this book is the go-to here. Because this book is about Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious. But it also shows us how Sheev Palpatine become THE POLITICIAN in the star wars universe. 

This book is also a good stand alone book, even thou it has the potential to become the first book of a series of books. 

I Give This Book 5 / 5

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories” By Washington Irving Review

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This book is a collection of short stories written by Washington Irving. I will of course review each short story individually since this review would be very very long if I reviewed each short story which this book includes in this review.

To be honest most of the short stories in this book have been a 2-star reads for me personally. I didn’t hate the short stories in this book but I didn’t like them either. Of course I will explain more in each of the review on those short stories in this book.

After reading this book and all of the short stories in this book I believe that Washington Irving’s work isn’t for me. Because I didn’t like none of the short stories in this book as I wanted to. But after reading a lot of books in my time I need to say that he isn’t a bad author because I have seen worse.

The writing style in those short stories in this book is pretty much the same. It was pretty gothic. And I gotta say that I loved it a lot. 

After reading this book and all the short stories in this book I gotta say that I wouldn’t recommend it to people because it wasn’t as good as I wanted to be. 

I for sure had a lot of expectations for this book and most of the short stories in this book because I’ve heard a lot of good about them but after reading those short stories personally I gotta say that they didn’t leave up to all the goods things said about them on the internet. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Wolf Island” By Darren Shan Review

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As the mysterious Shadow builds an army of demons, Grubbs Grady and his team search desperately for answers. But when they follow up a new lead, it takes them to an old, unexpected foe – the Lambs.

This book is the 8th book in a series called “The Demonata” which I had no idea about before buying and reading this book. Which might be the reason why I hated this book and DNF-ed it. 

To be honest I had no idea what was happening in this book while reading this book. All I know while reading this book was that there were some kind of demons and a group trying to fight them. But let me tell you I was very confused while reading this book which really made me DNF this book very quick. 

The characters here, are very bad. They are flat, shallow and feels like the author didn’t knew or care about giving the readers good character which they would relate to and actually like. I cant tell you specifics about the characters in this book because my brain refused to give them any brain storage or power. 

The writing style in this book are meh, it isn’t good but I for sure have seen worse writing style in my time reading books. 

I Give This Book 1 / 5

“The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” By Stuart Turton Review

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‘Somebody’s going to be murdered at the ball tonight. It won’t appear to be a murder and so the murderer won’t be caught. Rectify that injustice and I’ll show you the way out.’ It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed. But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden – one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party – can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot.

Ive heard a lot of good about this book, and after reading this book I gotta say that this book doesn’t live up to my expectation I had for this book.

The plot in this book has good and unique premise. The plot in this book reminded me of the movie “Happy Death Day” if it was written by Agatha Christie. I wanted so badly to love this book but after reading it, I just couldn’t even like this book because of how bad it was. I know my opinion might be very unpopular but hey we all are different and the books which you love some other people might hate. 

There are too may characters in this book which really makes impossible to keep track of who is who in this book. And to really get a picture of all the characters because there are way too many characters in this book. And all of the characters feels like the same person which doesn’t make it easier to tell who the killer is and who is innocent. Every character in this book also seems like they could be the killer because each character in this book has like 50 red flags about them which makes you sure that this character is the killer until you meet the next character. 

My second problem about this book is that this book keeps going back and forward in time without giving us any heads up which really makes you so very confused. And it doesn’t help me liking this book more if it keeps making me more and more confused as I continue to read this book.

My third problem with this book is that the more I read of this book the more and more I felt like vital information wasn’t withheld from us on purpose so that the so called “tension” in this book would build up until the “plot twist” at the end of this book. But let me tell you neither tension or plot twist exist in this book because of how poorly this book was written.

The writing style in this book is bad. It felt like it was written by a grade school kid who wanted to be the next Stephen King or Agatha Christie. Which of course is far from the author intention I guess. 

I Give This Book 1 / 5

“The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band” By Neil Strauss & Vince Neil & Nikki Sixx & Mick Mars & Tommy Lee Review

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Whiskey and porn stars, hot reds and car crashes, black leather and high heels, overdoses and death. This is the life of Mötley Crüe, the heaviest drinking, hardest fighting, most oversexed and arrogant band in the world. Their unbelievable exploits are the stuff of rock ‘n’ roll legend. They nailed the hottest chicks, started the bloodiest fights, partied with the biggest drug dealers, and got to know the inside of every jail cell from California to Japan. They have dedicated an entire career to living life to its extreme, from the greatest fantasies to the darkest tragedies. Tommy married two international sex symbols; Vince killed a man and lost a daughter to cancer; Nikki overdosed, rose from the dead, and then OD’d again the next day; and Mick shot a woman and tried to hang his own brother. But that’s just the beginning.

Ive been dying to read this book for a long time. Because I am a pretty big fan of Motley Crue and wanted to read this book. And finally I did.

The writing style in this book is amazing. Neil Strauss really did a good job at putting together a very good written book about Motley Crue.

This book gives us the insider story of Motley Crue which the newspapers and news report overlooks. And this book puts this insider story of Motley Crue in a very relatable way even thou most people reading this book aren’t world famous rock starts. 

This book has 4 perspectives from Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee. Which gives this book access to their the stories of each of the member of Motley Crue. And all of the stories we get in this book shows us that all of the members in Motley Crue had some shit happening to them. Which really makes you realize that each member of Motley Crue is just like then rest of the us and not just the big musicians which not bad happens to.

This book also talks about how really fucked up it was being a rock star in the 80s and  90s. And the music records aspect of being a musician in the 80s and 90s.

If you are a Motley Crue fan, rock’n roll fan or music fan in general I believe that you will like this book a lot. 

I Give This Book 4 / 5

“Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World” By Tom Wright & Bradley Hope

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The dust had yet to settle on the global financial crisis in 2009 when an unlikely Wharton grad was setting in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude–one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. Billion Dollar Whale will become a classic, harrowing parable about the financial world in the twenty-first century.

Ive been wanting to read this book ever since it was published back in 2018, and finally I did. I gotta say that it lived up to my expectations which doest happen very often for me. 

This book the author a lot of time to research the case and all the schemes Jho Low. The case of Jho Low involves a lot of people, companies, banks and even parties to write a book about this case in a month or so. Because at the same time because all the people, companies, banks and parties we are told about in this book the entire case becomes so much confusing and hard to keep track of.

This book makes you realize how ridiculous the entire thing was and how schemes it must have taken for the whole thing to not be exposed for so long as it did.

However this book could have used better timeline than it did. Because it keeps skipping back and forward in time without any specific reason other than telling us as much of the story as possible. 

The writing style in this book is pretty simple and easy to understand. But at times it throws at us the big fancy financial words which no one really understands who isn’t working at wall street or some other financial institutions.  

However if you liked the Jordan Belfort story, you will also enjoy this book. Because the story Jho Low involves famous people like DiCaprio, Jordan Belfort and other people from Hollywood. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Kidnapped” By Robert Louis Stevenson Review

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Swindled out of his inheritance, recently orphaned David Balfour finds himself kidnapped and aboard a slave ship bound for the Carolinas shortly after the Jacobite rising of 1745. A shipwreck leads to a chance encounter and an unlikely rescuer. Highland rebel and suspected assassin Alan Breck Stewart. An incredible friendship blossoms between the two young men, who occupy opposite ends of the political and religious spectra. Together they return to the mainland, outwit many murderous foes and schemers, and attempt to restore David to his rightful fortune.

I gotta admit that this book is slightly overhyped on the internet. I read this book since I’ve read on internet that this book was very good, but after having actually read this book I need to say that this book is so much less impressive as people on the internet claim it to be. 

This book had a intriguing and good premise for a plot since we follow a 17-year-old named David Balfour, who is alone in the world of 1751 Scotland. I gotta admit that if I was him in that scenario I would be very fucked. 

The plot here is very sad because the main characters seems to be followed by a dark cloud of betrayal and danger while he is trying to search for his own identity after his father dies. 

I gotta admit that I liked the rich historical context this book has, and at the same time I also liked a lot this book’s backdrop of 18th-century Scotland. I found both of those aspects in this book to be very fun, interesting and intriguing and thats why I said above that this book had a intriguing and good premise for a plot.

The author is able to capture the landscape and cultural tensions of the time in which the plot of this book takes place in. Which in a way gives us a vivid sense of place. 

But there are a lot of times where this book drags a lot which made it difficult to say interesting and engaged in the book as I was reading it.

The main character here was okay for the most part. He begins as a very reliable protagonist for this book but the deeper we get into this book the more the main character’s journey begins to lack a form of depth to it which made it difficult for me at least to connect with him the deeper I went into this book. 

When it comes to the side characters of this book, they feel very one-dimensional and gave me the impression that the author didn’t really care about the side characters but needed them to connect the dots for the plot to be complete. 

The writing style in this book is fun because for the most part it is very rich, descriptive and it sets a very nice tone to the plot. But at times the writing style uses way too many words about situations or things which could have been explained in one sentence. And in a way this affects the action happening in this book, because the moment something interesting begins to happen the writing style uses way too many words to describe what is happening that it distracts you from the actual action happening.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“It Starts with Us” By Colleen Hoover Review

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Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, have just settled into a civil coparenting rhythm when she suddenly bumps into her first love, Atlas, again. After nearly two years separated, she is elated that for once, time is on their side, and she immediately says yes when Atlas asks her on a date. But her excitement is quickly hampered by the knowledge that, though they are no longer married, Ryle is still very much a part of her life—and Atlas Corrigan is the one man he will hate being in his ex-wife and daughter’s life.

Even thou I liked the first book in this so called two book series, I gotta say that writing this book was very unnecessary to write and even more unnecessary to publish for people to read. Because its so much worse than the first book.

The entire plot of this book is the main female character being afraid to say and do anything because she is afraid of her ex-husband. Which really annoyed me because she was acting like a 5 year old girl who was afraid that her dad would take away her iPad rather than a grown woman. And her ex-husband, you know the one who pushed her down the stairs and tried to rape her, has still keys to her apartment and walks into it like he owns the place. Like how big of a coward is the female character ? That she is afraid to ask for the keys her ex husband has  and tell him to stop showing up unannounced ?

The guy the main character is just as bad as she is. Because he goes all along with her idea of going into those secret “dates” and hide around like they are a pair of teenagers who aren’t allowed to date yet. But also the guy is said to be the Gordon Ramsay of this book, but all he does in this book is sit in his office and look at the pictures of the female character. 

The writing style in this book feels like it was written by a the most girly teenager who thinks that she has her life figured out even when its clear for everyone reading this book thats the opposite.

I have nothing good to say about this book (nor about Colleen Hoover as an author in general) other than dont read this book or any of Colleen Hoover’s books because they aren’t worth the money spend on them and even less worthy of the time you will spend reading. 

I Give This Book 1 / 5