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The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri
well, my expectations were destroyed so i guess i got what i wanted 🤡 The second book syndrome was strong in this one. If you’ve read my review for The Jasmine Throne you know how much I loved that book (i think i described it as one of the best fantasy novels out there)…sadly I…
2 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, ANGST, battles, british indian author, court intrigue, DEATH, f/f, FANTASY, female authors, high fantasy, indian inspired setting, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, myths, political intrigue, published in 2022, queer, read in 2022, revenge, ROMANCE, royals, sapphic, siblings, TASHA SURI, temples, The Oleander Sword, war -
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
American Spy opens with a bang only to come screeching to halt within a few pages. What could have been an intriguing tale of espionage is thwarted by lacklustre execution: painfully slow pacing, watching-paint-dry levels of entertainment, cardboard characters, robotic narration, dry dialogues, heavy on the telling…Aside from its snazzy cover & title, and that…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 1st pov, 2 STARS, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, American Spy, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Burkina Faso, Caribbean, espionage, family, female authors, gay side characters, heavy on telling, HISTORICAL FICTION, Lauren Wilkinson, lgbtq+ side, Martinique, My reviews, NEW YORK, political intrigue, politics, published in 2019, RACE, read in 2021, SISTERS, slow pacing, spies, THRILLER, west africa -
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
“Desire is the cause of all suffering. All Zhu had ever desired was to live. Now she felt the pure strength of that desire inside her, as inseparable as her breath or qi, and knew she would suffer from it. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the awful magnitude of the suffering that would be…
14th century, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, Adult, ALIENATION, anti-hero, Asian Australian author, battles, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, China, court intrigue, f/f, FANTASY, friendships, gender identity, ghosts/spirits, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, loneliness, MAGIC, monasteries, mongolia, myths, netgalley, political intrigue, published in 2021, queer, read in 2021, RETELLINGS, revenge, sapphic, She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan, terrific prose, war -
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
“Trust me, her face said.That was the problem with making allies. At some point, inevitably, there came a moment when a decision had to be made: Could this one be trusted? Had their loyalty been won? Was their generosity a façade for a hidden knife?” I more or less inhaled this 500+ page novel in…
3rd pov, 4.5 STARS, Adult, big books, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, british indian author, court intrigue, DEATH, f/f, fantastic worldbuilding, FANTASY, female authors, high fantasy, indian inspired setting, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, MAGIC, morality, myths, netgalley, political intrigue, published in 2021, queer, re-reads, read in 2021, read in 2022, revenge, royals, sapphic, siblings, TASHA SURI, temples, THE JASMINE THRONE, violence -
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
“Trust is not an endlessly renewable resource. Loyalty might be. For longer.” With A Desolation Called Peace Arkady has achieved something quite rare in a sequel. In fact, I liked A Desolation Called Peace so much so that, when I looked back to my review for A Memory Called Empire, I found much of…
3rd pov, 4 STARS, A Desolation Called Peace, Adult, ALIENS, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Arkady Martine, court intrigue, cultural dissonance, f/f, female authors, language, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, morality, netgalley, philosophical, political intrigue, politics, published in 2021, queer, read in 2021, sapphic, SCI-FI, SPACE, space battles, SPACE OPERA, spaceships, SPECULATIVE FICTION, Teixcalaan, terrific prose, war -
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
“A smart Teek survives the storm, but a wise Teek avoids storms altogether.” It took me awhile to warm up to Black Sun and during its first half I worried that I would find myself once again in the ‘unpopular’ opinion camp. As I’d read and liked Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning I was hoping…
3.75 stars, 3rd pov, adventure, AMERICAN AUTHOR, between earth and sky, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, Black Sun, disabilities, FANTASY, female authors, FOLKLORE, gods, great storytelling, high fantasy, indigenous, lgbtq+, MAGIC, morality, myths, native american & first nation, Native American & First Nation authors, non-binary side characters, political intrigue, pre-Columbian inspired setting, prophecies, published in 2020, queer, read in 2020, Rebecca Roanhorse, ship, voyage -
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas — book reviews
While I understand historical context and I am quite able to appreciate classics without wanting them to reflect ‘modern’ sensibilities, I have 0 patience for books that glorify rapists. SPOILERS BELOW I don’t mind reading books about terrible people. I read Nabokov’s infamous Lolita and Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. I enjoy books by Agatha…
1 STAR, 17th century, adventure, Alexandre Dumas, big books, BOOK REVIEWS, books i hate, CLASSICS, drama, duels, FRANCE, FRENCH, French author, friendships, heroes, HISTORICAL FICTION, horrible friends, male authors, MELODRAMA, men who do not seem to know how to write women, musketeers, political intrigue, problematic, published in 1844, rape, read in 2020, sexual assault/abuse/rape, story within a story, The Three Musketeers, TRANSLATED FICTION -
An Honest Man by Ben Fergusson — book review
In Ben Fergusson’s An Honest Man our narrator Ralf revisits a particularly significant year in his life. The year is 1989 and Ralf is eighteen and lives with his family in West Berlin. Growing up in a bilingual household (his mother is English), Ralf has always felt like a bit of an outsider. In a…
1980s, 1st pov, 3.5 STARS, Adult, affairs, An Honest Man, Ben Fergusson, Berlin, Booklr, British author, coming of age, drama, east and west germany, family, fathers & sons, gay, German, Germany, HISTORICAL FICTION, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, m/m, male authors, mental health, mothers & sons, MYSTERY, political intrigue, psychological, published in 2019, queer, read in 2020, ROMANCE, spies, SUSPENSE -
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel — book review
To simply define Wolf Hall as being a historical narrative seems unfair. The word ‘historical’ conjures a sense of events that happened a long time ago. Wolf Hall, unlike most historical fiction, struck me for the immediacy and urgency of its narrative. While the events Hilary Mantel writes have occurred nearly half a millennium ago,…
1500s, 16th century, 3.5 STARS, anne boleyn, big books, BOOK REVIEWS, booker-prize, Booklr, British author, british history, court intrigue, england, female authors, Henry VIII, Hilary Mantel, HISTORICAL FICTION, LONDON, philosophical, political intrigue, politics, psychological, published in 2009, Putney, read in 2020, Religion, royals, Thomas Cromwell, tudor period, Wolf Hall -
A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay — book review
Perhaps if Guy Gavriel Kay had paid more attention to his story and his characters, rather than devoting himself to the cadence of his carefully orchestrated prose, I would have been able to enjoy reading A Brightness Long Ago more than I did…the first few chapters are compelling but what follows is a repetitive, wearisome,…
luce [is reading] 