nclcaitlin's reviews
1731 reviews

Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose Darling

3.75

It’s giving me Daenerys from Game of Thrones in a romantasy vibe. 

"If you feel left out, I'll find someone for you to stab later," he calls out over his shoulder.

I cross my arms over my chest. "I'd like to stab you." 

His grin widens. "I love it when you sweet-talk me."

When she was a baby, five dragons broke free from what were thought fossils. A prophecy followed: Princess Elowen would either destroy Imirath or bring it immeasurable glory.

She was four when her dragons were ripped from her, taking her from being a princess to a prisoner overnight.

Elowen vowed to one day turn on the kingdom for all her suffering and what they took from her. 

To do so, she forms a tentative partnership with the demon Commander Cayden, her kingdom’s biggest enemy. He is a walking supply of endless innuendos, smirks, and glares.

It's a codependent, vengeance-based alliance, but it's still an alliance. 

This is extremely troupe heavy. Pinned against a wall, knives to throat, a cold, handsome Commander. Touch her and you die. Carrying her over glass shards. Buying her gowns and flowers. Sending letters. 

For this reason, I know this will blow up!

“What are you?" A monster, but for you, never to you."

Also, the FOUND FAMILY! I am obsessed! This is why I crave romantasy from time to time. 

Think the Night Court from ACOTAR, the friendships in Throne of Glass, the collective (funny) darkness of the Crows in Six of Crows…

We're a really fucked up group.

I think I like it.

Bonuses:

• Platonic boy and girl friendship which was extremely endearing and refreshing. I love Finnian so much - their belonging, and knowledge of each other🥺.
• Anxiety and panic attack representation. 
• MC loves romance books (Carden reads them to tease her with them).
• "You're a vicious little thing,"
• Angel and Demon nicknames.
• Period representation.

Yes, I admit some parts made me cringe. But know that romantasies normally turn me off as they each feel like carbon copies. This was so refreshing! The BANTER! 

Also the spice never overtook the plot (and was very easy to skip without missing key conversations if you are like me and prefer to skim these parts).  

Don’t expect amazing world-building - there’s mentions of creatures and gods and cults chucked at you with little explanation, but it was never too confusing - things you could overlook. 

One thing to note - there is less focus on the actual dragons rather than them being a goal to retrieve. 

Of course, as the series progresses I am sure they will be a more prominent feature. 

Thank you to Zaffre for sending me the physical proof in exchange for a review (I love the purple cover)!

Nightstrider: A Mesmerizing Epic Dark Fantasy by Sophia Slade

3.5

Good somnia, what a rollercoaster!

There are two realms. Humans who dream in the Wake manifest nightmares or luminaes. The two realms collide through Para Warwick a night terror, ruler of the Reverie, and the King of Wolfhelm in the Wake. 

Queen Ila is a former Weaver, part of a human sect meant to maintain the Boundary between the Wake and the Reverie, otherwise the worlds themselves would disintegrate. Ila rescues a child, a dreambreaker who can change the tide of the rebellion. Only thing is, the child is stolen from her by the King before Ila can whisk her to safety. 

 

In the Wake, Queen Ila is arranged to marry the King’s innocent and ignorant son Prince Caine. Caine is a cinnamon roll and nothing like his father. Which is unexpected for Ila. 

Wren is one of the worst nightmares created by Para Warwick; known as Nightstrider, once an honoured title, now a collar around her neck.

Then we have a luminaire and a nightmare working in tandem to aid the rebellion. 

All these characters find themselves working in different realms, for different sides, but all for the same purpose: to get their hands on the dreambreaker to harness her power. Some for devious reasons, others to gain advantage, few for love.  

There’s a lot to take in as you can see. But the inclusion of a glossary at the start helps you get acclimatised and the world-building quickly becomes apparent with constant, subtle reminders throughout. 

The writing is engaging and funny filled with morally grey characters, great sibling dynamics, and burgeoning emotions and morality. 

"You may believe you are different, Prince Caine," Ila said quietly. "But in my experience, passivity is as deadly as any blade."

I thought this was Young Adult. Nope. Definitely not. Not as gruesome and vivid as other adult books, but there are explicit moments. 

There is excessive torture, sometimes bordering on feeling like trauma and pain indulgence. And some scenes and exchanges played out like predictable fanfiction. 

Saying that, I know that these very facts will appeal to certain audiences. 

"I am not my father,"he gritted out. "I've spent my life trying to evade the role he crafted for me. He would have me leading battalions, collecting kingdoms for him like trinkets-'"'As you've collected mine!""Because I ran out of places to run, Ila! Same as you." He dragged a hand down his face, trying not to scream again. "He would have me treat you as a prisoner, but even when you betrayed me, I protected you. I all but crawled after you."

This was extremely fast-paced. Not a moment let up which made it an extremely fast and hard to put down read.

I am glad I got to this as I have been following the author’s work for a while and had the indie book on my shelf for a while!

Thank you to Orbit for providing me an arc in exchange for a review. 

Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates

4.25

This made me want to scream and then distribute it to every single woman I know. And then shove it in every man’s face and highlight it in politics. 

This is not a men vs women issue. It’s about people vs prejudice.

A collection of truths from women worldwide about gender-based condemnation suffered in both private and public spheres. Carried out by strangers and loved ones alike. 

This was separated into several chapters, each covering different areas of discrimination, such as the media, politics, the workplace. 

Each section is backed up with statistics, and is supplemented by the entries that have been submitted via the Everyday Sexism Project on the Web she set up. This has such an emotive impact. 

Numbers and facts sometimes don’t always penetrate, but relating to what a young girl admitted on a forum really hits home. Thoughts that you suppress because surely not many other girls feel the same or experience the same? This is how you handle non-fiction to make it accessible, relevant, and engaging for all. 

 
In the Brownies (when she was 7) we sang songs about potential careers. One verse I remember went: “typing letters, sitting on the boss’s knee”.

To ignore is to be implicit. This was made so apparent through this non-fiction. How many times has ignorance or trivialisation empowered or encouraged such acts? As girls, we are taught, socialised, and indoctrinated to be polite. Demure. Obliging. 

How many times have I continued a crass or uncomfortable conversation with a man because I didn’t want to be rude? Or not call out some behaviour because I didn’t want to cause a scene? Seem over the top or dramatic? 

The world around us sends us messages about ourselves as women - about our guilt, and our difference, our accountability and our flaws. It gives us endless reminders of the vulnerability and victimization of women. And all the while we are conditioned to be passive and pleasant, not to make a fuss - to be ladylike and compliant and socially acceptable. Before we experience violence we are conditioned to expect it - and to accept it.

This made some of my own feelings and worries feel justified. Because no, it is not right and no it should not be reduced. 

Please let everyone read this. Especially important for women who may not realise it is as widespread or normalised as it is. 

Everyone I Know is Dying by Emily Slapper

2.5

Better than Sally Rooney?!
Unlikable, unreliable, self-obsessed-and-absorbed, confident, but actually extremely insecure Iris.

With activities such as ‘scheduled relaxation', a list of her wake up routine starting at 6:44am, exfoliating before shaving, stepping into the perfume, etc; this almost at times feels like reading a vlogger. A vlogger who is brutally honest and shows us her true self behind the facade. 

I think the reason this is receiving such mixed reviews is because it is also so blisteringly true. Iris’s thoughts are definitely thoughts we have had at some point - sarcastically, or hidden deeply; dormant or repressed. Maybe just not as extreme. 

As the story progresses, we see Iris realising how stupid her routine is, her perfectionism strained to breaking. 

We follow along as Iris starts to yearn for connection, for more in her relationships. She wonders if there is more in looking for meaning rather than a nod in gratification or approval from people she, in reality, barely knows. 

I can't understand why people don't like to be seen as objects when to be seen as an object is to be desired. This is why I keep coming back.

I do wish I had the ebook or physical copy so I could highlight and include more quotes in my review as WOW. However, I also loved listening to the audiobook as I think otherwise the monotony of the lists and Iris’s constant inner monologue might have got boring and frustrating for me. Listening to it made it feel like Iris’s very voice was inside my head. 

Saying that, after the first 50%, I found I really couldn’t care for the plot or the characters. It started to feel repetitive and it lost that oomph from the start. 

This started out ridiculously strong and then stumbled and then fell off. 

Trigger warnings for mental health, disordered eating behaviour, and suicidal thoughts. 

Thank you to Harper Collins for providing the audiobook in exchange for a review!

The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

4.0

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.

It has been a year since I read book four and, after reading many summaries and recaps to refresh myself, I find myself drawn back.

912 pages… buckle up. 

I am surprised Nynaeve has hair left, the amount she tugs on her braid. 

Since Rand’s arrival, now anyone can enter Rhuidean where he is intent on gathering the Aiel. 

Rand had once thought him and Egwene would marry one day, but now she sides with Moiraine against him.

Mat’s luck is still strong, but he feels himself chafing being by Rand’s side.

However, all must work together when uh oh - big danger - the seals which hold the Dark One seem fragile. 

Nynaeve and Elayne are hunting the Black Ajah, both having to assuage their flaring tempers as they struggle with each others’ temperaments and motivations. They both annoyed me equally. 

 

In the Tower, Elaida is struggling to hold on to power after Min, Siuan, Leane, and Logain escape. Meanwhile, her advisors are struggling to cope with the idea of the Dragon Reborn. 

My non-spoiler thoughts:

Egwene is probably my favourite perspective to follow at the moment. Yes, she’s frustrating, but she hates the caution her teachers, whether Wise Ones or the Aes Sedai; enforce. For Egwene, it is hard to hold back when she knew that in so many ways she already outstripped them. She is ravenous for knowledge. 

"A melon couldn't be swollen enough for your head," Egwene muttered, folding her arms beneath her breasts. "And a stone couldn't be as stubborn! Moiraine is only trying to help you. Why won't you see that?"

Rand is a frustrating protagonist. He wants to do good, but doesn’t want to be led by others. He wants to win, but never shares his plans or fears. He has a secret mentorship with a traitor Forsaken. Rand seems innocent, not lazy, and naive, not ignorant, but he is also bullheaded and has no proper respect for person or position. 

It would be easier if this was a story, he thought. In stories, there were only so many surprises before the hero knew everything he needed; he himself never seemed to know a quarter of everything.

WHERE IS PERRIN?! 

Also, Matt’s story and arc really needs to kick off because I am bored of his only quality being lucky. And wanting to get away from Rand and fate. 

I think giving myself distance from this series helped. I complained in my last review of book four (last year) that I was starting to feel impatient and fed up, especially with the repetitiveness. Having this break allowed me to wonder about the characters and what happens. 

I am planning to continue, but instead of binging it like I prefer to do, I might try and do a WoT book fortnightly in between my other reads. 

I am just worried about keeping everything straight in my head because I am not planning on rereading! 

Nolyn by Michael J. Sullivan

3.5

Can you read this without reading any of the other books?

If you have all of Sullivan’s works, there’s so many allusions to the past - learning truths behind myths, and also offers progression on what happened hundreds of years in the future after the prequel series!

If this is your first Sullivan book, Nolyn would still be understandable and enjoyable. 

Sullivan excels at characterisation and quirky characters and the rich lore, history and worldbuilding were also aptly established in the for newbies not to feel thrown in at the deep end.

The story in Nolyn took place over eight hundred years after the conclusion of the First Empire series (but still 2,000+ years before Riyria).

Nolyn and Sephryn are the children of the some of legendary people who were responsible for the creation of the empire.

Nolyn, the heir to the empire, is suspicious about his reassignment to active duty on the front lines of the Goblin War with the funny and loveable Seventh Sik-Aux. 

Elsewhere, Sephryn finds her apartment broken into, her nursemaid murdered, and her son kidnapped. She then hears a voice telling her to steal the Horn of Gylindora which is a legendary, powerful artefact.  

A reoccurring theme in Sullivan’s book is how myths and stories are created and then manipulated. This affects civilizations and their conceptions for generations. As a few of the characters live longer than mortals, they demonstrate and witness how history is blurred by bias, manipulation, and memory.

"Something l've learned about people, both human and Fhrey, is that they hate having long-held beliefs challenged by facts, even about stupid things. Once you get something settled in your head, it becomes comfortable and difficult to dislodge... No one likes to admit they're wrong, even if they are just agreeing with something someone else told them."

In contrast to Riryia, Nolyn and Sephyryn can sometimes feel hollow making predictable choices with little interaction with each other despite their alluded to deep friendship and their future (if you know).

Sephyryn in particular contains very little character development and is constantly anxious and struggling with her morality. 

The best parts are with the Seventh Sik-Aux who have such a fun camaraderie who tease and banter with each other.

All that being said, I enjoyed this more than I remember enjoying the last book of Legends, and I have heard that each book set in this trilogy (interrelated but not necessary to read one after another) gets better. 

Sullivan is definitely an author to look out for. He and his wife work as a team to only publishseries when he has finished it. This means that everything goes neatly together and you are always left feeling satisfied. 

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

3.5

Take a deep breath. 

This memoir will grab readers by the throat and heart because of the beauty of its words, but will penetrate due to the thorniness and complexity of its ideas. Sinclair’s story exposes the rot in the heart of a not-quite post-colonial nation that also boasts about its distinctive identity.

Born in a seaside Jamaican village, Safiya Sinclair grew up in a strict Rastafarian family, ruled by her father's strict patriarchal views with extreme repressive control of her childhood.

We follow Sinclair’s reflective journey as she risks the wrath of her father, a reggae musician who feared his daughters being corrupted by Western influences — what Rastas call “Babylon”.

There was more than one way to be lost. More than one way to be saved. While my mother had saved me from the waves and gave me breath, my father had tried to save me only by suffocation. With ever increasing strictures, with incense smoke, with fire. Both had wanted better for me, but only one of them would protect me in the end.

Sinclair shares her own family history alongside the political and religious histories of Jamaica.

This makes it more intimate and shocking, framing the realities of colonialism, imperialism, child abuse, and sexual coercion within in the retelling of Black girlhood.

A book, I soon learned, was time travel. Each page held irrefutable power.

This book started off irrefutably five stars. However, after the halfway point, I felt myself slightly losing interest as the language became less poetic, everything felt more mundane, and her recounting felt predictable.

However, saying that I have to acknowledge that this is real life. Of course, it is going to be predictable as she has already alluded she is a poet. Of course, it makes sense she goes to school, experiences racism, breaks away from her father, and cements her own identity. 

This perhaps sound callous, however this is what I knew to expect from a memoir such as this. 

What does this expectation tell us of the world?

Heartbreaking, yet hopeful, I recommend the audiobook! 

Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth

2.5

This would make a cute K-drama, but it was definitely not the book for me. 

I should have dnf’ed as I wasn’t enjoying it on hour in to the audiobook, but I struggle to dnf, it was a library loan, and I adore Olive Blake (this is her pen name!). 

A very YA romance with a cringy enemies-to-lovers with D&D connecting an argumentative, independent and wilful girl; and an athletic, popular guy. 

“𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬.“

Maybe I went in with the wrong expectations. There is a reason Blake uses a different name when writing this. It is nothing like her usual work. Including her adult romance Alone With You in the Ether which is admittedly more literary romance. 

Saying that, the last 1/3 dealt with really relevant and deeper topics. Crisis alert. I have always liked the way Olivie writes relevant topics that can be hard to tackle with such ease, humour, but also emotion. 

Saying that, the main character just really annoyed me. For once, I agreed with the annoying brother - that’s coming from an older sister myself!

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

2.25

Unexpectedly, this follows a completely different cast compared to book one. 

This follows the Special Forces branch of the Colonial Defense Forces who are particularly enhanced soldiers. They have special abilities, most particularly a quasi-telepathic link with other members of their unit.

After brilliant scientist, Charles Boutin, turned traitor, the CDF transfer his consciousness into a clone of his body, hoping to find out what made Boutin go bad. But the transfer doesn't take (at first), and the clone, called Jared Dirac, becomes a regular Special Forces member.

Let the shenanigans begins. 

Harvey knew what he was and what he was best at: He was a noisy son of a bitch and he was good at making things fall down and go boom

This time around the narrative is no longer in the first person which allowed info-dumping on what we missed out on in book one. This was much more science heavy and I felt myself bored. Even the writing felt removed from the characters. 

Not to mention, the humour didn’t really land this time around which might have made this more worth pushing through. 

I don’t think I will be continuing the series. 

A Tide of Black Steel by Anthony Ryan

4.0

Your next Norse, sea faring fantasy fix!

Thera is the Vellihr of Justice for Ascarlia, sent to investigate rumours of rebellion. 

Felnir, lesser brother to Thera’s renown. Disgraced and unhappily forced in his great-grandfather's service.

Elvine, daughter to Ascarlian librarian Berine Jurest (!!!! Covenant of Steel !!!) ends up working for the Sister Queens, rulers of Assarlia. after being arrested at a Covenant rite, a practice not tolerated in Ascarlia.

Ruhlin, a young fisherman, is stolen from his home by raiders where he discovers a rage which makes him near invincible. The name Fire Blood follows him.

Our big baddies are cult of the Volkrath who believe themselves inheritors of the blood of the Ultvar, the first race of men set upon the earth by the Worldsmith.

Their mission is basically our version of Hitler’s perfected, best gene vision. 

We sought power, and we found it. But power is like a flame: it warms but it also burns.

There are a lot of characters as you have noticed. However, they are all so distinct with very different quests and journeys that it is easy to distinguish them. 

Ryan has always been great at writing deeper and dark characters. For example, both Elvine and Ruhlin, both stolen from their homes, grapple with self-recrimination, fury, hatred warring with fear and self-perseverance.  

If you thought you had tumultuous relations with your siblings, wait until you meet Felnir and Thera. One is condemned to ignoble skulking at the other steals all glory. I liked that it was the sister that had the honour in the eyes of the public as this is not normally so!

"What's that Alberic word, Margnus? The one for those who make a living by enmeshing folk in the vast, contradictory web of their customs?"

"I believe the term is 'lawyer', my queen," the Tielwald supplied.

Finally, I would be remiss to not mention his amazing world-building as he stretches his world of the Covenant of Steel in a Scandinavian/Norse-inspired part of the world twenty years on.

You don’t have to have read CoS to understand this series, but you might miss Easter eggs and you might struggle with some information dumps. Also, the revelations will make your jaw drop in shock, excitement, and satisfaction. 

I would recommend this if you enjoyed The Bloodsworn Saga by John Gwynne. 

Thank you to Orbit for providing an arc in exchange for a review!