Month: January 2023

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Leave a Comment

Started: 1/21/23
Finished: 1/25/23

And then I started this series, too. This one was the author’s very first book, and it shows. I enjoyed the premise enough to keep going (and then to keep going and going and going), but her writing had LOTS of room for improvement, and I was SO irritated by the ages of the characters. Our main character is a world-famous assassin who was caught and sent away at the ripe-old age of SEVENTEEN. She’s 18-19 in this book, and her love interests are 21 and 23, and I just can’t. Can’t they be at least 25?

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

Leave a Comment

Started: 1/9/23
Finished: 1/24/23

If I’m going to listen to an audiobook, I prefer a thriller or a mystery, usually. This was a thriller, and every thriller has a twist, and while I didn’t guess this one, I was also underwhelmed by it. Not creepy enough, maybe, and the twist made the whole story stranger.

The Last of August, A Case for Jamie, A Question of Holmes by Brittany Cavallaro

Leave a Comment

Started: 1/7/23
Finished: 1/20/23

Sequels to A Study in Charlotte, which I read FIVE YEARS AGO (way to be timely with continuing the series). It’s enjoyable, but I think the first book was the best in the series. It gets into teenage angst, but in a stilted way – which makes sense because Sherlock Holmes, but still – and the angst reminds me of the COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY angst in the later books in Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles. So that was a little irritating. And the plots of the later books do that thing where it’s impossible to figure out the twists and turns. I want the mystery to be difficult. I don’t want information to be withheld in such a way that I would never be able to figure it out.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Leave a Comment

Started: 1/16/23
Finished: 1/18/23

Yes, I started this series. The writing was okay, but this was clearly a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and I like fairy tale retellings. The hero seemed pretty great, except when he didn’t, and the answer to the “riddle” was so obvious I thought I couldn’t possibly have it right. But also I didn’t care that much. I finished it to see what the hype was about. It was okay.

Lethe by Tricia Sullivan

Started: 12/30/22
Finished: 1/5/23

Recommendation by some author I like (probably Rainbow Rowell?), but I don’t know about this one. It took a LONG time to get into it. Also, the paperback I have has a TERRIBLE cover.

It’s set in the future, people can turn into dolphins swim with dolphins something about dolphins, there’s another planet and maybe a wormhole and maybe a giant conspiracy to keep the little guys down and also a forest with memories? It was odd in a not-fun way, and I don’t think I liked it.