Weekly Reading Review: What I’ve Read!

 Weekly Reading Review: What I’ve Read!

Hello my fellow readers! I’m back again with yet another update! And I actually managed to post on time! (Well, technically on time, even though it’s Friday evening)

Let’s just get right into it.

Vengeance of the Pirate Queen by Tricia Levenseller

This book was 4 stars. It’s a spin-off standalone from the world of Daughter of the Pirate King, following Sorinda, the quiet, closed-off, pirate assassin that’s part of Alosa’s crew. 

This one was interesting, since I already knew that I liked Sorinda, and her love interest, Kearan. The worldbuilding introduces a cold wasteland island that they accidentally stumble upon while searching for a missing crew, and things start to go sideways from there.

I just felt like the plot was way too condensed and could have been lengthened. 

Kill Joy by Holly Jackson

Five stars! This is a prequel to Jackson’s main series, A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder. It has Pip at a ‘murder mystery’ party with her friends (literally just her friends), and it’s a novella that’s around 117 pages long.

I loved it! We get to see motivations appear for Pip, we get to see her interact with her friends, and we get to see why she chose to solve a murder for her senior capstone project, the one that ultimately influenced her entire life (and the one that the first book is about).

If you’ve read the AGGGTM series or are planning to, I highly recommend this novella!

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

This was 4 stars, a step up from its first book. I liked the character growth we see in our main character, Stevie, and how she continues to try to solve both the Ellingham murders and the murders that took place while she was at the school.

But at the same time, I feel like the plot kind of fell flat in the last third of the book, even though she figures out who was behind the Ellingham murders.

Shadow Reaper by Lynette Noni

5 stars! Normally I’m not a big fan of romantasy, and that was definitely my least favorite part of the book, but I really enjoyed the cast of characters and the very unique worldbuilding and magic system. Our main character, Viri, was interesting, and so was her love interest, Reeve.

I will say that this is a bit of a long book, so the plot felt a little slow in some spots, but all in all, it didn’t drag too much.

Though please note that this is a dark fantasy, and, as such, is a little dark.

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

Another five stars. It left me devastated that I had finished this story, though it took me a few days to finish it (mostly because I didn’t want it to end). There’s a little romance, a lot of action and magic, and of course, plot twists that I didn’t expect.

I loved the growth of the characters, the way the story wrapped up, everything.

  There’s only one thing… there is a demon in this book, but it is eventually killed. So if you’d prefer to avoid that, I would say skip this book.

Better Than The Movies by Lynn Painter

This was 3.5 stars. I’m not a romance reader, and the only reason I picked this one up was because I buddy-read it with a friend, which took a little over a week. 

I loved Wes, the love interest, and Jocelyn and Noah, two side characters that I think could have had a little more page time.

The main character, Liz… well, it took her a little bit to grow on me, if I’m being completely honest. 

But if you like romance, specifically rom-coms, then I’d say read this one.

The Ruling Class / The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

This book was five stars! (Also, The Fixer was its old title, before it got a new cover design and title, so it’s now called The Ruling Class)

I loved Tess Kendrick, our main character, and her internal struggles with her sister, Ivy, felt believable. I just liked Tess’ attitude and I wish that I was outgoing enough to be like her.

The side characters, Vivvie, Asher, and Henry were all wonderful. And the plot twists… just the storyline in general… Barnes delivers once more!

The Daughter of The Siren Queen by Tricia Levenseller

I’m technically not done with this one yet, but I’ll be done with it by the time I get to bed, so I’m counting it. 

This is probably 3.75 stars, since I like it just fine, and it’s a good sequel to Daughter of the Pirate King (yes, I read this series a little out of order). Alosa and Riden had a lot of growth in this book, and the plot got a little more exciting.

But it just felt a little lacking.

And that’s it! While 8 books this week definitely sounds really impressive, it’s actually a lot closer to 5 and a half. Better Than The Movies took around 9 days for me to finish, since I was only reading 2 or so chapters a day, and I took several days to read The Raven King. 

Oh, and Kill Joy was literally under 150 pages, so…

I’ve had classes starting this week, and more to come after Labor Day, so I might not be able to get a writing post out, but I’ll try!