Dani

Loved it with all my (sword) heart!

Évalué le: 2025-01-14

My entire personality as a tween/teen was created by cozy fantasy authors like Robin McKinley and Patricia C. Wrede, and this book scratched exactly that same itch in a slightly more grown-up way. By grown-up, I mean quite low spice (a couple of closed-door/euphemistic scenes at the end) but a little more violence than most cozy fantasies with just a pinch of skin-crawling horror... in a good way and not surprising, coming from the author of books like What Moves the Dead.
Jesse Vilinsky's performance was fantastic. The accent she gave Sarkis was perfect and the frustration in his voice when dealing with Halla's unending questions left me in fits of giggles.
I LOVED that this was a romantasy with adult characters! While there is an age gap, it is not that of certain popular series, with a inexperienced woman in her early 20s partnering a 500+ year old fae man. Halla is a 36-year-old housekeeper widow and Sarkis is a battle-worn warrior cursed with immortality and servitude to the wielder of the sword that entraps him. I fell in love with Halla instantly; as a fellow chatterbox with a sometimes inconvenient sense of curiosity, she rang very true to me. Their adventures traveling the countryside in an attempt to reclaim her inheritance and discover the truth of Sarkis' enchantment was a romp and the cast of characters they collected along the way were almost all fun to spend time with.
My sole complaints: either I must have glossed over a character who importantly reappeared during the climax of the book, or his introduction was poorly done, because when he popped back up I was like "who is this?!" Additionally, I have discovered I am not a fan of the "I have a terrible secret that I must keep from the person I am falling for but the longer I keep it the worse the reveal will be" trope; the eventual betrayal/fight/reconciliation pay-off almost never feel proportionate to the secret or the internal conflict. If I ever find a book that does this in a way I like, I'll be sure to shout it from the rooftops!
Overall, this was a wonderful book and I am that I read it as an audiobook, instead of print. Fans of grumpy x sunshine pairings, road trip plots and the fantasy humour of William Goldman or Terry Pratchett should definitely give this one a go.

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Spice was hot but the rest was cold

Évalué le: 2025-01-14

No plot summary here! Proceed if you dare...
The Good:
Consent: this played a big part in the story. Georgie and her fellow female captives had little choice to avoid being recaptured by the alien slavers (yes, I feel as silly writing this as you do reading it). Her first meeting with Vektal was also problematic (ie. non-consensual touch) but he quickly took to heart her teachings on the importance of gaining enthusiastic consent (believe me, there were LOTS of opportunities for enthusiastic consent as the story went on) and taught his fellow Sakh kinsmen to respect human females.
Fast: the plotting was fast and the book was short.
Spicy: the spice-to-page-count ratio was definitely high. Georgie and Vektal melted the snow of the ice planet many times with their "rolls in the furs."
Narrators: I appreciate that they went with dual-narrators for this one. I can't imagine it would have been any good with only a single voice actor! The accent that Mason Lloyd gave to Vektal worked for the character.
The Bad:
Retro in a bad way: The vibe felt very "out of touch cis-het white author in the 70s writes a bodice ripper where a woman abducted by a """"barbaric"""" (scare quotes to the max) Indigenous/Black/Non-White man and, despite their differences/language barrier, sexy times ensue." If you can't picture what I mean, search for Silken Savage by Catherine Hart, Sweetwater Saga by Roxanne Dent, or Savage Obsession by Cassie Edwards. Basically, Dixon swapped the "brutish turned stoic and passionate" Indigenous love interest for a blue-skinned alien to circumvent the problematic parts of that very outdated romance subgenre, all while keeping pretty much every other trope, up-to-and-including the "long black hair" on the male lead!
Diversity: The reading I have done on the series suggests that it is very cis-het and white, with a few BIPOC heroines popping up in later books. It also seems that basically every book ends with a pregnancy.

I likely won't be back to the planet of "Not-Hoth" to follow the adventures of this posse of abducted 22 year old women and their alien lovers, but I am glad I finally know what everyone is talking about!

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Spice is spicing, but not here for the gore

Évalué le: 2025-01-09

I think dark romances might not be for me. I'm always here for the spice, even some that heads into "should I share that I read this book with my coworkers?!" territory, but the graphic violence often found in this sub-genre, and definitely present in this mafia Peter Pan retelling, doesn't do it for me. I won't get too deep into the plot of this one, so here's my "Stefon" roundup.
This book has everything:
Morally grey male lead!
Virginal heroine!
Murder!
Kidnapping!
Drugs!
Erotic asphyxiation!
The death of multiple fathers and father figures (you're welcome, J.M. Barrie's daddy issues!)
Tragic backstories!
Multiple secret siblings!
Nonstop Peter Pan puns and references!
I still want to give McIntire's contemporary Sugarlake series a go, but I think I'll be leaving the Never After series for readers who love their romances with a generous side of graphic violence.

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Doesn't hit as well post #MeToo

Évalué le: 2025-01-09

This 2016 workplace romance is definitely reflective of the pre- #MeToo era it was originally written in. I do like some push-and-pull in my romances, but the clear power discrepancies between Chase and Reese (him a beauty industry inventory and CEO, her the newly hired marketing staffer) had me feeling the ick. While their connection began before she was his employee, the ground rules she set to keep their professional relationship and her reputation intact were barely respected by Chase, with him repeatedly overstepping or challenging her boundaries. No amount of chemistry or bonding over traumatic pasts can excuse away that kind of behaviour for me!
I did enjoy their banter and their meet-cute, but the flashbacks to his traumatic backstory slowed the plot-pacing for me. I understand the prevailing wisdom to "show-not-tell" in storytelling, but the split narrative to explain his past wasn't well enough executed to make-up for pulling me out of Reese's POV.

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Drop Dead Wonderful

Évalué le: 2025-01-09

I love me a Lily Chu! My favourite will always be her first book, (The Stand-In) but this was a fun and mysterious romp worthy of a read. I liked spending time with Wes and Nadine, watching them go from rivals to lovers, and cheering them on as they learned to stand up to their overbearing families and unsupportive workplaces. I only wish we had gotten more of Dot Voline in life... and that I got to explore her fantastic house myself!
I found John Cho (who I LOVE as an actor) a bit stilted in his delivery. I know Wes is buttoned up and a tad repressed, but a little more flow and emotion in the voice work would have helped. Even after he started opening up, the choppy cadence continued. I think I'll stick to getting my Cho fix on the big screen rather than in my audiobooks.

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Made my blood boil!

Évalué le: 2018-09-28

A horrifying true story of the breakdown of a Silicon Valley darling that kept me captivated to the end. While this isn't a traditional "true crime" book with unsolved murders and missing corpses, I would highly recommend it to all the "murderinos" out there. The fact that no one died is a miracle! To push out a phone or app before it is ready is ill-advised; to do the same with a device that people are intended to use to make life-altering medical decisions is unethical and criminal! I hope that Holmes and Balwani are both held to account for their actions. Fantastic writing and investigating on the part of Carreyrou; his role in the unmasking of Theranos goes to show why long-form reporting is still so important. Narrator Damron handled the salacious story well.

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Tragic and uplifting

Évalué le: 2018-09-14

This book came highly recommended from a coworker and when I saw that the audiobook was read by one of my favourite narrators, Julia Whelan, I knew I had to give it a listen. Westover's story was so full of trauma and abuse, it made getting through it tough at times, despite the compelling writing. She showed that breaking free of a toxic family is never easy and, even if I felt like yelling at young Tara for going back to her father's house again and again, her writing made it clear that healing is a process that takes time and often involves going backwards in order to go forward. I definitely recommend this one, either in print or as an audiobook. #Audible1

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A missed treasure!

Évalué le: 2018-08-21

I discovered this book through a Twitter thread of tragically underexposed books and I recommend it HIGHLY. It’s like the Westing Game and Glee and The Shining had a book baby together. As a person who used to do high school arts retreats (yep, I was a theatre geek), the little dramas of the teenage musicians rang so true! Amidst all the hormones and the angst are murders and adults dealing with their own, darker issues in a snowed-in hotel. There’s a reveal in the later chapters that had me crying. I’m really excited that the author has announced she has a new book coming from HMH in 2019 and can’t wait to read it!

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The Trojan War gets Miller's masterful treatment

Évalué le: 2018-08-15

I LOVED Miller’s most recent book, Circe. Despite this, and the fact that The Song of Achilles was highly celebrated when it first came out, I was prepared to be a little disappointed by this audiobook. How could it compare to Circe, which was so masterful?! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the two were near equals. I knew little to nothing about the Trojan War and Achilles, so I assumed that his romantic relationship with Patroclus was invented by Miller for her book. A little research afterward revealed that the ancient texts could be interpreted as the two being lovers. The more you know! Frazer Douglas' narration was on point, even for the rasping tones of Achilles' mother.

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Horrifying but ultimately uplifting

Évalué le: 2018-08-15

I am an extremely privileged person, so I have been protected and ignorant of the systematic abuses that people face, especially black folks in the Southern US. Listening to Anthony Ray Hinton's memoirs was difficult (and not because of Bryan Stevenson's narration, which was stellar!) It was hard to comprehend the levels of injustice that the author suffered at the hands of the State of Alabama that kept him on death row for nearly three decades. I was moved by Hinton's ability to stay true to himself and bring dignity and light to the most horrendous circumstances. I have never been a supporter of the death penalty but reading Hinton's accounts really hammered home the injustice and inhumanity of the practice; I hope that Oprah's support of this book will help change state policy where corporal punishment is still in place.

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