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!
Mini Book Reviews
Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters: I liked the world building of this one, with the background of the muses causing some people to have special abilities. I loved their secret world once we (and Emerson) got to learn about it, with all the wonder and whimsy (including statues coming to life, magical lakes, paintings moving, etc). But Emerson is a child (she’s like 12 or 13) and, rightly so, her dad didn’t think she was strong enough in her powers to solve all their problems. And, in expected teen fashion, she demanded that she was. It was only due to a betrayal and family love that saved her, I believe, and not her skills. This was a fairly short book (less than 300 pages) but it took me longer than expected to finish. Perhaps I had issues with the development. It’s big for a middle grade, but not developed enough for a YA. I can’t quite say what it was missing, but something just didn’t fall into place for me. I do have book 2 so I am curious if it gets more world building and more questions answered to help make the series overall more enjoyable. (Technically I finished this on August 30 but didn’t write the review until Sept.)
The Unmaking of June Farrow: This story is amazing. It falls into my few 5 star reviews category because of the twists and surprises and the character herself. The Farrow women are different, as in they have the ability to cross through time, but then their minds start unraveling with both sets of memories. The secrets are kept and we the reader experience unraveling the mystery of this curse along with June. June wanted to end the curse as she called it, first thinking it was a health or mental issue. All she knew is her mother disappeared when she was a baby and no one would tell her what happened. Except, others knew, and kept secrets until June was ready to learn them. Once June realizes what happened to her, her mother, her Gran, and the women before her, she sets a plan in motion that is unexpected and exciting. Getting to experience June’s memories coming back from a timeline she didn’t even know about was so much fun and made this book a very enjoyable read. The audio narration was perfect – a slow, southern telling of a time travel life and difficult choices to be made.
THREADS THAT BIND: The first half of the book was kind of very slow and hard to get into. The worldbuilding was complicated and didn’t really flow very well and I felt like there was too much going on at the beginning. About halfway through the book started getting exciting and fun, and there were twist and turns so you never knew who the actual big bad was. It wasn’t who I expected, so that was a nice twist. I wouldn’t say the book ends in a cliffhanger, but it does set up the next book with the next adventure that resolves hopefully everything we just uncovered.
THE DRUNKEN BOTANIST: Informative, with little to no mentally or emotionally draining characters. And exactly what I needed after some heavier books last month. Good for fans of botany or spirits\wine. I could clearly google all the information, but it was nice to have all in one place. Not sure how much I’ll retain? I do think the encyclopedia format would probably be better read than listened to. The audio narration is rather stilted and like those AI voices that read Instagram reels.
CINNAMON AND GUNPOWDER: This month’s pirate book. And meh. It was fine. But nothing too exciting. I was expecting a romance, but didn’t really feel it. A chef (man) is captured by a pirate (woman). Wedgewood spends the majority of the book trying to escape. Which I get! But then by the end, both he and the Captain have developed feeling for each other. For me, there was no typical romance. Sure, the two spend time getting to know each other over their weekly dinners. But I never felt the romance blossom. There are plenty of other characters to get to know. But as this is told from Wedgewood’s journal POV, we don’t really get to know the other characters as much as I would have wanted. Lots of journey. Some very good pirate fighting, especially the big battle at the end. I’d classify this as historic fiction without the romance.
THREADS THAT BIND: I found it ok; let’s call it 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. The world-building is muddled, with combinations of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Atlantean mythology. None of which is really clearly defined. The group of people with special abilities are looked down upon and treated as second-class citizens. I’d rather have more of Io’s private eye\investigating than the special abilities storyline. I did guess the baddie of the plotline. But the ending cliff-hanger has me interested enough that I might actually read the next in the series.
Books we reviewed this month:
- [16 Sep] Impact Parenting: Principles for Cultivating a Healthy Home by Rachel Gunn ★★★★
- [17 Sep] I Forgive You For Your Diaper by A. Parent ★★★★
- [22 Sep] Hollow Out the Dark by James Wade ★★★★
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