Here at Chapter Break, we don’t always write a full review of every book we read. Well, now we decided to do these monthly wrap-up posts with roundups of our reviews this month and mini-reviews to fill in the gaps. Enjoy!
Girl, Serpent, Thorn This is a story about a girl coming to terms with who she is and going through her coming of age journey. It started off kick-ass, with her being made of poison, able to kill with a touch. But she was locked away, forgotten, hidden. So she rebels, of course, as soon as the first guy pays her attention and wants her. But he’s not what he seemed, and she ends up doing something she spent the rest of the story regretting. The villain was interesting, not totally evil at all times, I like depth to my villains. The secondary love story was a very slow burn, but fitting. And F/F. This book had some interesting worldbuilding due to the Persian fairy tale background, but it was delivered piecemeal.
Dang. I read A LOT of review books this month! In addition, I managed to finish a few others.
The Case of the Missing Marquess (Enola Holmes #1): This is really cute! I love that she’s a self-rescuing princess. And that she out-foxes her brothers! Though, fair warning. It’s more Middle Grade than YA. And Julie and I both liked the movie better.
Dr. Strange Beard: Honestly, I wasn’t in love with this one. Which is surprising, as I loved the previous books in the series. My issues: (1) HUGE time jump. Like 6 years. And I clearly missed a bunch of stuff (marriages, kids). I need to see if some of those missing story lines are in the short stories collection. (2) Missing the usual humor in these stories. This one is just a bit too serious for my tastes. Simone and Roscoe’s relationship is awkward and first, then builds on their strengths towards the middle of the story.
This is How You Lose the Time War: I enjoyed this one. First, it’s short! Second, I like the unusual format, vignettes rather than straight up storytelling and plot. The characters of Red and Blue reminded me of the gender-fluidity of Every Day by David Levithan. My only complaint is the lack of ‘how’ information. How do the characters ‘know’ where the other will be to send the messages? No idea. As I wasn’t told.
Books we reviewed this month:
- [1 Oct] Escape From Wheel by Michael Scott Clifton ★★★★
- [5 Oct] SIX FEET UNDER TEXAS: Unique, Famous, & Historic Graves in the Lone Star State by Tui Snider ★★★★★
- [10 Oct] Rebel Witch: A New Immortals Universe Novel (House of Magic Book 1) by Ariel Hunter ★★★★
- [12 Oct] Low Water Crossing by Dana Glossbrenner ★★★★
- [22 Oct] The Kissing Tree by Amanda Dykes, Karen Witemeyer, Nicole Deese, Regina Jennings ★★★★★
