Recommended for mature audiences as there are a couple of sex scenes. This novel is like a mash up of The Great Gatsby and The Grand Budapest Hotel. This beautifully written book starts slow as it bounces between 2 timelines and 2 intriguing romances, but it is engaging and ends with a bang! It includes forbidden love, scandalous mysteries, the roaring 20’s and refreshingly clever and bold female characters. Evergreen Falls explores the beautiful and precarious balance between the wild passions, burdens & dependability of love.
Recommended for those who like adorable, evocative & swoon worthy romance that hits you with all the feels! The 1st half is quirky and mesmerizing, while the 2nd half feels rushed and forced. But it’s still desperately romantic and heart wrenching and will probably make you tear up a few times. The idea of Owen turning anonymous confessions into art is truly brilliant! (Some one really needs to do this!)
However Auburn’s character falls flat, she’s bland & naive with a victim mentality.
Still the romance is awfully endearing, and swoony enough to help you forget Auburn’s severe lack of personality.
Recommended for those who like fantasy, mysterious creepy castles brimming with secrets and imaginative fairytale retellings with a dark twist. This is A really creative, eerie, exciting & fun spin on Wonderland!!
However….. don’t expect the Queen of hearts to be a wickedly awesome villain. Instead she’s a wimpy, spoiled, haughty and annoying princess. While the book does end with promise of her being a much tougher, & braver Queen, there aren’t any other mysteries resolved… So consider me perplexed (and intrigued) as I look forward to the sequel to answer my many, many questions!
Recommended if you like historical fantasy, 19th century Russia, dueling enchanters, imaginative, powerful magic & of course, the always irritating insta-love. Recommended if you want to read about a love triangle, between a fierce red headed magician named Vika, a brooding, orphaned magician named Nikolai, and a happy go lucky prince (Pasha) who wishes he was someone else.
This novel is really hard to put down, as it’s quite charming, full of surprises & is fantastically magical (also it reminded me of Disneyland). Even tho it’s about a duel to the death, it still feels like the same old story, and feels sadly underwhelming, like it deserved to be better somehow.
Hopefully the sequel can shake things up, and regain my intrest!
Recommended for those who like historical fiction, political schemes & a fierce, bad-ass girl bent on proving she can do anything a man can do. This book is about the childhood of Lada Dracula (the Impaler) who’s full of fury & longs to prove that no man will control her, or ever be her equal. This will pull on your heartstrings as it refreshingly escapes all the usual traps & tropes of typical YA fiction. It is thoughtfully deep, moving, surprising, original and fascinatingly dark, with plenty of teenage angst & brooding. The MC’s are brilliantly clever & ferociously brave, but raw, broken and quite relatable. Even though this book is about opposing kingdoms, there is surprisingly very little action in the 471 pages. Perhaps there will be more in the sequel? Since it is lacking in the exciting-action department, it might be hard for some fantasy lovers to feel fully invested.
Recommended if you like epic revolutions in a dystonia & scifi setting. Although the 1st book starts with the Hunger Games formula, it quickly surpasses it & becomes a powerful force of its own. It’s a wonderful & transcending spin on a story about slaves rising up against their masters. Even when the war takes a turn for the worse, there’s plenty of humor to lighten the mood. 😄 While Darrow (the MC) seems annoyingly overly perfect in the 1st book, it’s quite satisfying to watch him morph into a leader, by letting Mustang teach him how to love and respect his soldiers.
Warning: this saga is mercilessly gut wrenching & will fill you with anxiety while you worry about who will survive. Also the technical terms can be hard to follow. But it’s exhilarating, complex, well written, unpredictably clever and full of mischief.With non stop action there is just so much that happens in this epic saga, that makes this series impossible to forget.
Recommended for those who like historical fiction that is poignant, tragic & moving. This is a chilling & gripping story about the struggle for survival during the horrors of WW2.
It is brutal & heartbreaking, but is sprinkled with bravery, beauty & love. Although the novel itself ends way too abruptly, it is a story that demands to be read in one sitting.
Recommended for those who like Time travel, Scotland, hidden society’s, family secrets, medieval England, insta-love & mysterious boys. While the plot is fun, creative & interesting the MC is too much of a special snowflake & spends half of her time boy obsessed. 😒
The book starts off rather slowly, but picks up as it goes on & ends up being a pretty fun ride! Like a soap opera, or a sitcom, there’s not too much depth to it, but it’s still an enjoyable & easy guilty pleasure read.
WARNING….. Do not compare this to Outlander, but if you must…then think of this as the tween version & don’t take it too seriously or think about the plot holes.
Recommended for those who like retellings, fantasy & a very dark, twisted version of Oz! Starring a heroine who is independent, fierce, determined, with enough depth to be both lovable AND relatable. (Happily there is no love triangle, but the insta love romance was rather dull.)
This Series is an exciting, unique, entertaining, magical & frightening adventure, that will captivate you, if you stick with it. It slows down drastically in book 2, but the 3rd book is the best & finally reveals it’s fantastic backstory & mythology. I’m Looking forward to The End Of Oz!
Recommended if you like mysterious & charming paranormal contemporary novels. Just imagine Twilight with less romance & witches instead of vampires. This story is about an outsider who is obsessed with a family of glamorous & dazzling witches. So If you relate to outsiders or enjoy adoring & envying mystical teen witches, then you’ll love this!!
(If not, you may find this to be slow paced, cliched, vague & confusing.)
