Hello and welcome to another collective review!
Not Pretending Anymore by Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland
Review
This writing duo has a special place in my heart. They have never gone wrong and they didn’t this time. I read this book in one sitting and it was highly worth it. It is a story that I feel I have read over and over and whilst some tropes can get a bit overdone, these writers have managed to carve in self-reflection, identity and mental development and understanding into the plot.
Molly is searching for a roommate, not a perfect one but one that she would have an understanding of. She works gruelling night shifts at the hospital and wants some who would be quiet on her days off. More importantly, she wanted a female. That is until Declan turns up for the appointment and later tempts her with his baking skills.
She decides to allow him to rent the room and that is how their lives become entwined. She is crushing hard on a doctor at the hospital and she hopes that since he has just broken up with his partner, his heart would be open to her. Declan is also interested in his business partner (who by the way is in a relationship) and he hopes that she would break up and get together with him. However, he is not an asshole and h does not make any moves on her.
So we can be sure that Declan and Molly are not interested in each other, so living together would not be complicated…. right?
Wrong!
Rating
I gave this book 3.9 out of 5 stars
Radiance by Grace Draven
Review
I don’t know if it is right for me to say that the ending of the book was one of my favourite things about the whole book. That epilogue was what made this book for me and it is why I gave this book 3 stars.
This book was ever-present on my for you page and I decided to check it out because it was supposedly a fantasy with a lot of romance in it. Did it deliver on the romance part? Maybe it did slightly with the relationship between Kai prince Brishen and a Gauri girl (the Gauri’s are human and the Kai are not, they are supposedly monstrous and they eat alive serpents), so yes, it was thrilling to read their friends to lovers story. If I am honest, that part of the book was well done. So the romance was great.
Did it deliver on the fantasy? Rather than simply answering with ‘No’, I will say that the lack of structure of this world made it highly confusing to read and following. The Kai were not monstrous enough (or rather, not described well enough), the written landscape did not paint a picture (at least for me) and generally, the world build fell flat for me.
The actual interesting part of this book is right at the end when Queen Secmis (Brishen’s mother) summoned something so powerful that devoured her. That is why I really want to read the next book in the series!
Rating
I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars
How The King of Elfhame Learned To Hate Stories by Holly Black
Review
I am so happy that I finally got my hands on a copy of this book (via my library and it is simply beautiful. The artwork is amazing and Cardan looks scrumptious.
There is not much in this book in term of the storyline but it shed some light on why Cardan is the way he is. We get to see his actual relationship with Aslog and the lessons he learnt along the way.
‘Hate was the first thing that truly warmed him’ Cardan was lacking so much warmth that he was comforted by even hate. The indifference from his family was substantially the root of a lot of his problems. However, who he chose to become was all on him.
You can check out the full review of this series HERE
Rating
I gave this 4 out of 5 stars
Devils Lair by Anna Zaires
Review
This book disappointed me. This type of mafia stories are using my bread and butter, I live on them. but this book was all just bread and no butter. It started out all great and I was expecting a lot more, I mean it had content but not enough. The only way I can explain it is that I started eating and someone snatched the food from me.
Chloe has been on the run since she realized that the people who killed her mother were out to get her too. She is driving her almost rundown car across states to avoid these men. At a gas stop, she finds an ad for a live-in tutor with a price tag that was very difficult for her to refuse especially when she is on her last few pennies.
She attends the interview and Nikolai the child’s father takes a likening to her. She also finds him attractive. With the secrecy of the home and the guards around the estate, she believes he is part of the mafia. She hopes that with her there, it would be harder for her killers to get to her.
So with that said, this book had the promise to be exciting but all of that was cut short and we have to wait for the rest in the next book. Their relationship was not built enough, gosh I just hate how much we are missing out on with this storyline.
Since the ending showed some promise and we know who might have hired the killers, I believe things are going to get interesting.
Rating
I gave this 3 out of 5 stars
Thanks for reading.