Fun New Fantasy, Thought Provoking Sci-Fi, Hard Hitting Non-Fiction, and More | June Wrap Up

It was enjoyable it was enjoyable but I wouldn't say it was by any means like my new favorite story or anything like that. It was a nice break.

Really, really cool world, really cool ideas, some interesting twists and turns over the course of the story. The tricky part though is that this is an arc, and arcs do not have a set understood amount of presentation across them from one arc to the next.

And I know that every now and then it's fun to have a book with a very clear theme like Blood Over Bright Haven. I think its themes are pretty direct.

This was absolutely fantastic, Pulitzer Prize winner, and very, very, very well deserved. It is incredibly well researched, and also it's a little bit dense, I will say for a non-fiction.

I don't know that it's necessarily the best marketed, cuz it's marketed as more so like romancy, and I would say it's a It's a It's a blend, certainly, but I actually felt like the motivation to turn the page was not rooted in anything to do with the romance. It was everything to do with the situations our character found herself in, the world, and the character herself.

It's one of those kinds of stories, and those are the themes that are present, but it's just told in such a purposely stupid way. But, when I say stupid, I hope you don't I hope you know what I mean. Like, it's so obviously meant to be campy, but then it makes the sad stuff even worse cuz you're like, "No, they're just like lovable idiots. I don't want bad things to happen to them."

So, I have liked the interactions between the characters and the couples themselves. I just don't know that I'm really super into the plots of these necessarily, but they're kind of a fun break between some of the you know, heavy non-fiction or really thought-provoking sci-fi that I picked up recently.

And with Paladin Strength, I quite liked the couple in this one. I thought that their banter and their dialogue was fun and it was witty. And also, I just like these characters in general.

I just I liked this unexpected nature to this book and this approach. It wasn't quite like something I've read before. However, it did mean that I felt like the love story itself was kind of a little bit less fleshed out than I was wanting it to be maybe.

As a result of it not doing that, though, I did find slightly underwhelmed by the way things played out. And I thought certain elements at the end wrapped up almost too perfectly in a way that didn't feel necessarily earned.

I think it has a lot to offer and I think it was very ahead of its time because some of the discussions within this are ones that if you put in a book now, people even now might think like, oh, this is really out there. but I loved the conversations that were being had in this. Also, she's a great writer.

Scholar and the Last Fairy Door is by an author who I have read something else by them and I quite enjoyed it, The Magician's Daughter. And this one I also enjoyed it.

I thought the last section, while it made sense to the story and everything that was transpiring, and I feel like it concluded everything really well, it also kind of it I'm trying not to give anything away, but it felt like it was maybe it could have been a second book and then had that conflict continued or just kind of segued into it a little smoother. But I still really liked it.

This was so beautiful. The blend of history and fantasy was perfect in my opinion. I loved our protagonist.

I did think that the sequel felt like it had middle book syndrome. Just maybe more than just a little bit and it's a it's a lot, a lot of building.

So, book one I thought was fantastic. Really, really loved it. I have highly recommended it ever since I picked it up.

One, I guess you could say criticism I had of the story is that even though clearly the knowledge of the philosophy was there, how the characters interrogated that sometimes was not as strong as maybe I would have preferred. I mean, some of their conclusions or how they argued about things or how they discussed things wasn't as deep as I wanted, especially given how deep the world building itself is.

It still continues to be the most precious wholesome thing and it's it just it needs to be the reality for the characters all the time though is the thing. Cuz they've been put through too much.