Book Reviews

Magic Triumphs

Magic Triumphs

Magic Triumphs (Kate Daniels #10) By: Ilona Andrews

Plot:

Kate has come a long way from her origins as a loner taking care of paranormal problems in post-Shift Atlanta. She’s made friends and enemies. She’s found love and started a family with Curran Lennart, the former Beast Lord. But her magic is too strong for the power players of the world to let her be.

Kate and her father, Roland, currently have an uneasy truce, but when he starts testing her defenses again, she knows that sooner or later, a confrontation is inevitable. The Witch Oracle has begun seeing visions of blood, fire, and human bones. And when a mysterious box is delivered to Kate’s doorstep, a threat of war from the ancient enemy who nearly destroyed her family, she knows their time is up.

Kate Daniels sees no other choice but to combine forces with the unlikeliest of allies. She knows betrayal is inevitable. She knows she may not survive the coming battle. But she has to try.

For her child.

For Atlanta.

For the world.

Review:

The climactic conclusion to the Kate Daniels series! I have not been this excited for a book since the final Harry Potter. Somehow I was able to resist staying up into the wee hours of the morning to finish this, but it was close. The only reason I resisted reading it so long was because I was afraid of doing that and I need my sleep lately.

There were a couple heart wrenching moments, aided by the fact that my baby is just a couple months older than Kate’s baby. I cried. A couple times. I ignored my children as they destroyed the house around me.

SPOILERS

Kate has become a helicopter parent. She is definitely experiencing some post pregnancy hormones and has come such a long way from the original character. She loves so much and so afraid to lose it all and will do anything to protect those she loves. It hurts when you allow people in your heart, but she doesn’t regret it at all.

Not as many people died as I expected. In fact no one I really thought of as important died, which kind of lessened the impact of everything, but I don’t care. I love these characters and it would have hurt so much if they’d died.

Kate and Curran got their happy ending. We got to see Hugh and his woman and pretty much everyone in the universe we’ve met so far. They all had their part to play, but it never felt too chaotic. There was also a set up for another series, though, it doesn’t necessarily have to happen because things were wrapped up really well. It was nice that the world won’t necessarily be ignored and we can look forward to more stories in it.

I didn’t want to do anything after reading this, I just wanted to absorb, and then re-read the entire series. I might just do that, we’ll see, it’s been a while. If you’ve been waiting until the series is over to start it, here you go, never a better time to start.

5/5

Diamond Fire

Diamond Fire

Diamond Fire (Hidden Legacies 3.5) By: Ilona Andrews

Plot:

Catalina Baylor is looking forward to wearing her maid of honor dress and watching her older sister walk down the aisle. Then the wedding planner gets escorted off the premises, the bride’s priceless tiara disappears, and Rogan’s extensive family overruns his mother’s home. Someone is cheating, someone is lying, and someone is plotting murder.

To make this wedding happen, Catalina will have to do the thing she fears most: use her magic. But she’s a Baylor and there’s nothing she wouldn’t do for her sister’s happiness. Nevada will have her fairy tale wedding, even if Catalina has to tear the mansion apart brick by brick to get it done.

Review:

I devoured this novella. The world that has been created in the Hidden Legacy series is so interesting and complicated. The Baylor’s are such capable strong women and I love reading about them

This story was basically just an introduction to Catalina. We’ve, of course, seen her before, but we’ve never had her point of view on things. She is protective of her family, but also shy and more reserved than Nevada. She is scared of her power, for understandable reasons, and she doubts what her future holds.

The story was fun. There were moments of righteous outrage that I loved. A whole plethora of characters that may or may not show up later. Tons of family secrets revealed. It was a highly entertaining short read and I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

5/5

Secrets in Death

Secrets in Death

Secrets in Death (In Death #45) By: J.D. Robb

Plot:

The chic Manhattan nightspot Du Vin is not the kind of place Eve Dallas would usually patronize, and it’s not the kind of bar where a lot of blood gets spilled. But that’s exactly what happens one cold February evening.

The mortally wounded woman is Larinda Mars, a self-described “social information reporter,” or as most people would call it, a professional gossip. As it turns out, she was keeping the most shocking stories quiet, for profitable use in her side business as a blackmailer. Setting her sights on rich, prominent marks, she’d find out what they most wanted to keep hidden and then bleed them dry. Now someone’s done the same to her, literally—with a knife to the brachial artery.

Eve didn’t like Larinda Mars. But she likes murder even less. To find justice for this victim, she’ll have to plunge into the dirty little secrets of all the people Larinda Mars victimized herself. But along the way, she may be exposed to some information she really didn’t want to know…

Review:

It took me forever to finish this book, my reading habit is still borked for some reason. There was nothing wrong with this, it was a normal In Death book, so don’t take that as a sign this one isn’t any good.

Eve witnesses the death of a Gossip Columnist and upon further digging discovers the woman was a narcissistic sociopath. It was an interesting story, wrapped up fairly quickly, easy enough to figure out who done it, but still entertaining.

I liked that we got to see more of the supporting characters than we have in the last few books, though, still not as much as I feel like there used to be. Eve is definitely growing as a character and didn’t dwell on some of the darker parts of the mystery as much as she would have in the past. Her and Rourke were on point during the story and we actually got a little bit of time with just him.

It was a nice, non-world shattering mystery and I enjoyed it.

4/5

Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda (Creekwood #1) By: Becky Albertalli

Plot:

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

Review:

I decided to read this book after watching and LOVING the movie (review will be posted in February along with a ton of other romance reviews). The movie was the ultimate sweet romance, it had two people falling in love via letters which is how some of my favorite romances start. I was really excited to read the source material.

Simon is gay, but he hasn’t told anyone. When someone posts on his high schools Tumblr account that they’re gay he makes a secret email account and starts emailing them. Romance blooms.

Things get complicated immediately when someone sees Simon’s emails and starts blackmailing him. The blackmailer really sucked at it and honestly that whole line of plot was kind of rarely there, though, he did end up outing Simon who had to deal with the backlash.

The book was cute, but it was definitely a YA novel, with all the angsty teenage drama to go with it. What I loved about this book was seeing different starring characters. Seeing a gay teenager fall in love is unique in this day and age and definitely something to promote and normalize until it’s not a big deal when you see it.

Representation matters!

4/5

Leia: The Princess of Alderaan


Leia: The Princess of Alderaan (Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi) By: Claudia Gray

Plot:

A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY….THERE WAS A PRINCESS WHO BECAME A LEGEND.

Sixteen-year-old Princess Leia Organa faces the most challenging task of her life so far: proving herself in the areas of body, mind, and heart to be formally named heir to the thrown of Alderaan. She’s taking rigorous survival courses, practicing politics, and spearheading relief missions to worlds under Imperial control. But Leia has worries beyond her claim to the crown. Her parents, Breha and Bail, aren’t acting like themselves lately; they are distant and preoccupied, seemingly more concerned with throwing dinner parties for their allies in the Senate than they are with their own daughter. Determined to uncover her parents’ secrets, Leia starts down an increasingly dangerous path that puts her right under the watchful eye of the Empire. And when Leia discovers what her parents and their allies are planning behind closed doors, she finds herself facing what seems like an impossible choice; dedicate herself to the people of Alderaan–including the make she loves–or the galaxy at large, which is in desperate need of a rebel hero.

Review:

Leia is a tragic character. Her entire world and family are destroyed by the Empire. She’s also an amazing character because despite all that she keeps fighting. Her son turns evil, she keeps fighting. Her husband is murdered by her son, she keeps fighting. One of her oldest and best friends sacrifices herself so that the resistance can live on, and I’m going to assume she keeps fighting. At this point it’s like Leia is the favorite whipping boy of every Star Wars writer. It’s depressing.

So let’s dive back into the backstory of this tragic character. Surely, we’ll find something happy and not horrible. Right?

Well, the book starts with Leia depressed because her parents have started blocking her out of things. They are no longer the tight family unit she’s grown up as. Being part Lois Lane she discovers through snooping that her parents are part of a rebellion that is just starting out. They resist letting her join, even though they all know it’s actually worse for her if she doesn’t. The Empire will still kill her if they find out.

While trying to convince them she can help she takes part in the Junior Legislature and comes to the realization that the Senate has even less power than she thought. That the Emperor and his lackeys have set up pretty much everything to go the way they want and even when she thinks she’s succeeding, she isn’t.

During this time she meets her fellow Alderannean (?) Kier who she ends up falling in love with. She thinks she can trust him and that they are on the same page. Kier is good, but he values Alderaan’s safety over the safety of the rest of the universe. I imagine his ghost was screaming ‘Fuck You Leia’ when Alderaan blew up. Because that’s right, Leia’s first love, the boy she gave her virginity to, was freaking killed.

I am not a fan of prequels, knowing what’s ultimately going to happen takes all the joy out of it for me, but I read this because one of the hosts of the Strong Female Characters Podcast repeatably mentioned that it was an amazing book and that it was revealed that Holdo was poly. I was excited about that, so I persevered. I kept waiting for Holdo to be in a relationship or something to clue us in, until finally I came to one little line. Leia says she’s going to stick to humanoid males and Holdo says how limiting. That was it. Seriously. I was disappointed and had hoped for so much more.

I didn’t need a sex scene, I just wanted a relationship or something more than a throwaway line that could have been easily missed. Sure we learned more about Holdo, and that was nice, but she came off as a Sci-Fi Luna Lovegood. There wasn’t much there. Occasionally, we got some insights into her character, but Leia for the most part thought she was flighty and weird. By the end of the book she was a bit more fleshed out, but I would have liked more. Like maybe a book about her life instead of a princess we already know a lot about.

The last line basically took a baseball bat and beat you upside the head with dramatic irony. Leia thinks, she’s got her family, friends, and planet. At least the Empire can’t take that away from her. It was massively eye roll inducing.

Claudia Gray is a great author, and this was very well written, but much like Solo I don’t think this book needed to be made. It took a character with a tragic story and doubled down hard. We got some glimpses into what it was like to live on Alderaan, which made the loss even worse, but honestly that was about it for me.

3/5