Continuing Series I’ve Given 5 Stars… can they live up to my high expectations? 👀📚

Eventually over the course of the novel it just felt like Baldry was gently pushing me closer and closer until without even realizing it I'd fallen in love with the characters and their friendships and this little seaside town and I was devastated when it had to be over.

Basically I really enjoyed this i'm still enjoying the series quite a bit i'm definitely going to read the third and final book in the trilogy but I will say that the second book didn't hit quite as hard as book one. I wasn't quite as wholeheartedly in love with it for a variety of reasons that I'll get into so I think I'm sitting around four stars for this.

I loved Gideon as she was in the first book and if she didn't change at all that would feel very unrealistic because she's been through a lot but I also don't want her to lose all of the spark that made her you know. I would love that cuz I really loved Harrow and Gideon's dynamic in the first book.

I remembered what it was like for Harrow the Ninth and that everything came together near the end and suddenly recontextualized a lot of the first half. I personally love that Tamson Muer is doing something different and playing with form and being experimental and kind of trusting the reader to figure it out eventually even if it takes some time.

Everything I said from the first half applies gorgeous writing so much heart amazing characters really beautifully depicted complex nuanced emotional relationships beautiful handling of a trans character really lovely inclusion of Kiqua culture fascinating science and a really unique setting and to me seemingly a very realistic and grounded portrayal of what this early stage would be on Venus. It's so evocative you really feel like you're there and that's one of my favorite things about sci-fi and fantasy when I feel transported to another world and I felt that so strongly reading both the first book and this one.

I liked the writing i like that this series continues to focus thematically on the power of stories and the importance of perspective in storytelling and memory and sort of the inconsistency of memory but also the lies we sometimes tell ourselves or intentionally tell storytelling to kind of portray ourselves a certain way or to ease our own regrets or guilt about certain things. In this case most of the stories were just again not really my thing which is fine.

Legends and Lattes still wins out for me and I'm still going to give this one five stars because I think it deserves it especially for how it ended and just how it made me feel by the end. This one might be more of a four and a half stars rounded up situation a really great read but maybe not an absolute favorite whereas Legends and Lattes is just an absolute favorite of mine.

I ended up really loving this i was very invested in the characters i found the plot in the second half pretty exciting and interesting like I said I loved seeing characters from previous installments come back and getting to see them from a different perspective. I loved having multiple mysteries and loose threads resolved or tied up and I'm really excited for the next installment.

I liked that in the first book there was this constant push and pull with the idea of what makes us a human and what makes a monster is it our actions that make us a monster does our nature automatically assign us to the role of monster can we sort of rise above our nature to choose not to be monstrous are you automatically a monster if you are capable of great violence and use that capacity when needed in self-defense. There were a lot of questions of that in the first book and I loved the way it was sort of woven throughout the story and through each of the different characters experiences with their talents.

I feel like The Angels Game was a lot more almost leaning into psychological horror it was quite serious and dark and spooky at times. Shadow of the Wind and Angel's Game are both amazing and I love them and I gave both of them five stars happily easily readily.

This is a book that I actually had as an eer and I loved it and I do not hear enough people talk about this book. It's a really cool sci-fi story about a colony of humans that have moved to Venus but they can't live on the surface of Venus because it's too toxic so they live in the atmosphere and it follows one particular family who live on a ship far down in the atmosphere where it's quite toxic and there's a bit of mystery there's complicated family dynamics it's really good.

This one was good i liked it we got to catch up with characters I like we got to jump back into a world that I enjoy the vibes are there it's very atmospheric there's a bit of a moody quality to the setting. I like the writing style the characters have heart.

I feel like The Shadow of the Wind found a really nice balance between being sort of light and comedic and a bit silly at times but also having this mysterious noir slightly spooky slightly dark tone kind of underneath everything.

The empress of salt and fortune which was the first novela I gave five stars i absolutely adored it's one of my favorite fantasy reads in recent years i think about it often.

The second book The Tiger Came Down the Mountain I liked a lot but it didn't hit quite as hard for me and I think I gave it four stars still loved it though.