Review: The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via Edelweiss+, all opinions are my own.  This book will be published February 21, 2023.

This had a really interesting premise, and I don't want to spoil anything for you since this is a thriller/mystery.  This follows Alex an aspiring writer who has been deep in the throws of depression after a fight with her now former best friend.  She has had writer's block since the incident, but luck shines on her and she gets invited to an exclusive retreat at the mysterious estate of her favorite author.  The catch is the ex-best friend will also be there with three other talented writers.  Alex loves the attention she is getting from her idol Roza as the retreat progresses, and her book is coming along nicely until Roza literally starts playing games with the women at the retreat.  Roza's tactics are a bit insane, and the women start to question their well being after one of the women goes missing.

Overall this was just OK for me.  I actually really enjoyed the snippets of Alex's book that she was writing for the retreat.  I didn't connect with Alex as the main character, she gave the impression of an unreliable narrator.  That isn't one of my favorite character traits, so I found it hard to invest in her.  Honestly I didn't connect with any of the characters.  There are alot of plot elements to keep track of and I would have preferred if the author had picked a few to really focus on and develop really well instead of throwing them all in here.  I never really got that suspenseful feeling, perhaps because it all seemed a bit farfetched.

I think this is going to appeal to alot of readers.

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Review: Weyward by Emilia Hart

Weyward by Emilia Hart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, thank you to Macmillan Audio for allowing me an early listen.  This book will be published March 7, 2023.

This is told from the perspectives of 3 women in the Weyward family and each POV has it's own narrator.  I thought the narration was well done, Aysha Kala, Helen Keeley, Nell Barlow really brought Emilia Hart's story to life and I appreciated that Altha, Violet and Kate had their own physical voice so you knew which time period and which character was the focus of the story.  As the story progresses we learn how the three women are connected, but I liked that each chapter focused on one of them specifically and the narration followed suit.

I would look up trigger warnings before delving into this book.  While this focuses on women finding their own power, there is mention of physical and verbal abuse as well as SA, there is also miscarriage and abortion.  None of of it is particularly graphic and most of it happens off page, but there is enough there to make the reader uncomfortable.

Altha is being tried for witchcraft, Violet's affinity for insects makes her strange and undesirable, and Kate is fleeing from an abusive marriage.  These women all come from a long line of Weyward women who have an affinity for nature and have power within them if they are willing to tap into it.  Kate has been left her Aunt Violet's estate, and seeks refuge there as she figures out to do after leaving her husband.  Violet was a bit stranger, preferring to spend her time with insects and wildlife instead of people, but as Kate spends more time in her cottage she discovers that there was more to her aunt and her family than she knew.  As the book unfolds we get to know Violet and Altha and the hardships they faced as women and how they found the courage to overcome them.

I thought Hart did a great job of showing the historical accuracy of how women were treated and how we as humans treat things we don't understand throughout history.  Men are able to do evil things to women, yet women are still shamed as it was in Violet's case.  This still happens today.   Kate's situation was portrayed very accurately, and unfortunately many women are victim to those types of relationships.  I definitely got the feeling that this was trying to portray that women are good and men are evil.  I do also feel that Hart was trying to send us a message about body autonomy as well, which is still a pretty hot topic today.

Overall, this is an interesting yet dark historical fiction with a hint of magical realism.  I thought the switching back and forth between the POVs and timelines was interesting to connect the three women, however their character development suffered a bit because of it and there was a bit of repetition throughout.  

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Review: The Cradle of Ice by James Rollins

The Cradle of Ice by James Rollins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me an opportunity to review this book. As always, all opinions expressed in my review are my own. This book was published on February 7, 2023 and is available now in ebook, print, and audio.


After reading The Starless Crown last year, I couldn't wait for the next installment. This was one of my most anticipated books of 2023 and it did not disappoint. While this doesn't end on a what I would consider a cliffhanger, it is very clear that the series is not complete. I'm not sure how many books will be in the series, but I want the next book ASAP. This is a great epic fantasy with some sci-fi elements as well. It is a mix of all of the things I really enjoy about the genre and while it is a bit on the long side, I'm here for ever minute of the journey.


I will say that this book and series has alot going on. If you have trouble keeping track of lots of plot lines and characters, you may not enjoy this book. When I read book 1 I had both the print book and the audiobook going and I found that much easier to keep track of everyone and everything that was going on. This book is long, the audio is just over 26 hours, so if you can't keep track of what is going on it makes things really difficult and hard to stay invested in the story and characters. This time I only had the audio and it was a little harder to keep track of everything. After a few chapters, I was able to settle in and remember who everyone was and stay invested in the story. Speaking of the audiobook the narrator, Nicola Barber was really enjoyable. She did a good job giving a voice to the many characters in the book so you knew who was present in each chapter and who was speaking during dialogue.


As I mentioned this is a tad on the long side, there are times when I felt like the pace and the plot dragged a bit. I find this often occurs in epic fantasy/sci-fi when there are so many plotlines and characters and the author often switches between them from chapter to chapter. You will just start to get invested in one plotline, then you will jump to what is going on somewhere else. The transitions can be a bit jarring and the reader has to remember what was going on a few chapters ago with that part of the story. This also contains many of the tropes that you tend to find in epic fantasy novels and is not devoid of action. This has all of the things I love about a long fantasy/sci-fi novel to keep me interested until the end, it has political intrigue, fight scenes, cool science elements, an interesting magic system, and interesting characters.


Overall, I'm loving this series and I can't wait to find out what happens next.
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Review: The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar by Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris

The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar by Robin R. Means Coleman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book vi Netgalley, all opinions are my own. This book was published on February 7, 2023.  Thank you to Gallery / Saga Press / Simon & Schuster for providing me an early copy to review.

Let me first start this review by saying, I haven't seen or heard of many of the movies that were mentioned in this book. I tend to consume my horror via book instead of movie because it tends to follow many of the formulas mentioned some with and some without the racial issues brought up within this book. I have seen a few of the book to movie adaptations that were mentioned in this study of horror movies, and often they are poorly done. I did discover a few movies I'd like to check out after reading this book.

This book does a good job portraying and explaining the lack of people of color in movies, horror specifically, and the racial stereotypes that are portrayed in movies that do have people of color in them. In more recent years Hollywood has seen more diversity behind the camera in the writers, directors, and producers which has changed the casting and portrayal of people of color in movies and the roles they are cast in. There is still work to do, but there has been change in the right direction.

This book has a lot of great points to make about the lack of representation in the movie industry especially when it comes to the horror genre. The authors did a good job with the one liners to add humor to the book. You can tell that the authors are well versed in the horror genre and they did their research. They gave lots of examples of different stereotypes and tropes portrayed by the Black actors in horror movies throughout history. They also went into the various racial stereotypes that are portrayed in movies that hurt how people of color are seen in movies and in life and how the on screen portrayal is hurtful. People of color have often been portrayed as violent, promiscuous, and savage in horror movies or they are killed off early and often.

I did find that the repetitive nature of the format and the long lists of synopses that are repeated in each chapter take away from the message that the authors are trying to convey. I found that after about chapter 3 I started to lose interest because the same information on the same list of movies was listed multiple times. Given that the authors felt this information was important for the reader to have perhaps an appendix would have worked nicely instead of adding bulk to each chapter. I felt more like I was reading an academic research paper.

Overall, this was a very informative book. If you are a horror movie buff and interested in behind the scenes history, this is a great option.



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Review: Wildblood by Lauren Blackwood

Wildblood by Lauren Blackwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This book started out really strong, the premise of the Wildbloods and blood science is really interesting as is the sentient jungle, however I'm left with alot of unanswered questions at the end. The concept of the Wildbloods is really unique but we never get any explanation as to how they came to be or why they exist. You are just supposed to accept them and their abilities and therefore accept their poor treatment in the touring company. We never really come to understand where each of the characters come from other than they were kidnapped to become part of the touring company and to work for the abusive boss. I love a unique magic system or ability, but I need a little bit of an explanation as to how it works, and we don't get any explanation or tie to the local folklore. I believe the entities encountered in the jungle are tied to Jamaican folklore, but we don't get much background on this either. I don't mind doing my own research on myth and lore, but I feel like the author could have given us a bit more to go on here. I kept hoping that it would come up as the tour proceeded through the jungle, but those details never came to light.

The world building was great. The descriptions of the jungle and the entities that the tour group encounter are well done. After about the first half of the book, the focus of the plot shifts to the strange insta-love romance between Thorn and Victoria, and her trauma filled relationship with Dean. This created what felt like a love triangle, and I feel that the social commentary and character development aspect of the book was overshadowed by the romance tropes. I will say that I enjoyed the ending, and how the author brought things full circle.

This is a pretty brutal book, with lots of trigger warnings. The story is filled with symbolism and trauma. I believe this is YA, so the descriptions of events aren't overly graphic, but the situations and topics lean a bit more on the mature side. There is SA, physical and mental abuse, violence, blood magic, blood in general, slavery, death, and probably some others. The author is trying to address some pretty complex topics within a SFF setting. While I think the execution suffered bit by tackling too many tropes, it was an interesting story overall.

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2023 Alphabet Soup – Author Edition Reading Challenge

 

I've that in 2023 I'm going to try some different reading challenges.  I'm adding The Alphabet Soup challenge hosted by Dollycas to my repertoire this year.

You can sign up and find all of the info on Dollycas' blog post here.  This one sounds really fun and encourages using books you are reading for other challenges for the 

I'll be posting updates as I finish titles.  I always try to plan out my books in advance, but if the Popsugar and Book Riot reading challenges have taught me anything, it is that I almost never read what is on the plan.  Anything with a link has a review posted, so feel free to check out my thoughts.

Link to my google spreadsheet

A - Ryka Aoki - Light from Uncommon Stars

B - Lauren Blackwood - Wildblood

C - Rin Chupeco - Silver Under Nightfall

D - Sarah Daniels - The Stranded

E - Jumata Emill - The Black Queen

F - Francesca Flores - The Witch and the Vampire

G - These Violent Delights - Chloe Gong

H - Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris - The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar 

I - Hajime Isayama - Attack on Titan Volume 1

J - Ripley Jones - Missing Clarissa

K - Shalane Flanagan & Elyse Kopecky - Rise and Run: Recipes, Rituals and Runs to Fuel your Day: A Cookbook

L - Adrianna Locke - Sacrifice

M - Liz Maverick - Eight Winter Nights

N - Ari North - Always Human

O - K. O'Neill - The Moth Keeper

P - Christopher Paolini - Fractal Noise

Q - Kate Quinn - The Diamond Eye

R - James Rollins - The Cradle of Ice 

S - Sukeikha Snyder - Tikka Chance on Me

T - Tijan - The Revenge

U - June Eric-Udorie - Can We All Be Feminists?

V - Sarah Vaughn - Sleepless Vol 1 & 2

W - Martha Wells - Network Effect

X - Xiran Jay Zhao - Iron Widow

Y Adrienne Young - Spells for Forgetting

Z - Gabrielle Zevin - The Storied Life of AJ Fikry

Review: Hex You

Hex You by P.C. Cast
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This is the final installment of the Sisters of Salem series.  I highly recommend you read this series in order as you will be very lost if you do not.  This book picks up where book 2 left off with the sisters relationship still a bit in shambles but at the point where they are willing to accept their mistakes and make amends for the greater good.  The gates that the sisters are responsible for are weakening by the minute, and Amphitrite is still up to no good.  The sisters with the help of their friends have to heal their bond if they are going to heal the gates and the town.

The timeline isn't completely linear in this book which took a bit of getting used to.  You will be in the present with Mercy in one chapter, then you will be in what is Hunter's present in the next chapter but it actually took place before the chapter you just read with Mercy.  It jumps around a bit, and that can be a bit confusing at times.  I felt the dialogue was a bit immature even for teenagers.  I can get on board with Xena's speech being a bit strange because she isn't exactly human, but the rest of the dialogue (and there's alot of it) seemed really childish given the age of the characters.  No teenagers I know talk the way the teens in the book talk and the conflict resolution was too convenient and rushed to make it feel authentic.  The trilogy has been leading up to the healing of the trees, which the twins are guardians of, but the climax felt under developed and rushed.  

Overall, this is a fun YA series.  This particular installment is my least favorite of the trilogy.  I think younger readers will enjoy this series.  There is a little bit of everything from romance, to action and mythology, to magic.  My main issues lie in the execution of this book when it comes to world building and plot.  If you want some thing light and fun, you may not be bothered by those things.  

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