what_is_daphne_reading's reviews
430 reviews

Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Saoirse is so calculating and she has a one track mind. It’s her sister and literally no one and nothing else. This could come off as bad writing but the author does a good job of explaining the layered reasons for Saoirse’s devotion. I do wish it came up a little earlier in the book, because for a while it felt forced and like a plot ploy. Once we got there I understood that we see slowly because Saoirse also sees slowly. 

The story was fast paced and interesting. Saoirse was suspecting everyone so I was suspecting everyone. Although I low key knew who would be involved. 

Here is where I am probably going to break from the pack, I do not love Hayes. He feels like he is love bombing her. He pays so much extra attention to her why? Because she’s cold and professional with him? It doesn’t make sense. I don’t trust him. And after the end! I trust him even less. I will read the next book and see if I am right. 

Table for Two by Amor Towles

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Bookclub book. The short stories were kind of funny and kind of absurd. I will say that was their saving grace. I don’t like how the author wrote women. I tried to articulate why at bookclub but I couldn’t quite. There is just something off putting about it. They are all duplicitous,  underhanded, and like, self serving. Not always in a bad way, some of them were that and cool and competent. Some of the women were those things and we were made to not like them. 
The novella was interesting. I wish more details were given but I guess then it might’ve been a book. 
This book is firmly in the, if I’m at your house and this is what you are serving I would eat as little as I could without seeming rude and go out for pizza right after leaving, category. 

Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

My sister bullied me into reading this so I knew nothing going in. It has the same most basic and my favorite set up of many fantasy books. Main character is actually pretty important to a group of people they didn’t know much about usually because of a one of their parent who is generally no longer in the picture. 
Anyway, Diem has been kept in the dark about a lot of things but she isn’t naive or dumb, she is trusting of her parental figures. It is crazy how many things are parents keep from us that we find out later as adults or by mistake. What Diem discovers is wild. 
All of the characters are so well written and believable. Even in their flaws. The story pushed forward in a zigzagging manner. Which I appreciated. Diem was trying to find her way, and us along with her. 
When I finished the book I was left with some questions but not an unbearable amount. Now I am theorizing what is happening before starting the next book. I love with a book sticks with me for a while. So I’ll definitely be continuing this series. 

Fangs by Sarah Andersen

4.0

Cute and funny 

Rose in Chains by Julie Soto

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Although this would normally be right up my alley, I did not like it. The pacing, the characters, the plot, it was not for me. 

This is the first time I read Soto, so I don’t know if this is a function of the writing style in general or if this is a lost in adaptation problem. All I know is I didn’t like this book when I really really wanted to. 

The problem wasn’t that it was dark. I read and loved my fair share of dark stories. Here are the problems as I saw them:

1. Over use of the sickbed trope. The FMC was almost always passing out, healing from injuries, or from over using her powers. Things are perpetually, “going dark” and “the last thing she sees is….”
2. The world building was insufficient. The differences between the groups in the story seemed so superficial. And yes I know that all xenophobic groups latch on to dumb and superficial differences but this seemed beyond trivial. Where your magic originates inside your body is something that according to the text you cannot detect unless the person self identifies EACH TIME they do magic. So many people who were “heart magicians” could do “mind magic” and vice versa. It didn’t make sense why one group would think themselves superior over the other. Now I feel like my argument doesn’t make sense. No one really argued that one method was better than the other in the book. No one made that argument. Plus, both forms of magic yielded similar results. Like, both sides were in class together and they were being asked to do the same thing and everyone could do it, (or couldn’t.) and no one said, “oh look us… can do this task better than you because…” 
3. Dumb “smart” main character. The FMC is constantly talking without thinking, not reading the room or the vibe. She’s suppose to be so smart but she can’t tell when to keep her mouth shut? She’s suppose to be so smart and she needs someone to point blank tell her the big bad can read through your memories and you don’t know how to stop her so we can’t tell you anything? Like the first thing Mallow did upon seeing Briony was comb through her memories at basically the beginning of the book. 
4. This brings me back to how hollow the divide feels. Mallow is lauded for a technique that IS mind magic. Like what? Isn’t that what they hate about the other people? I really didn’t get it. 
5. Erratic pacing. I  didn’t like the jumping of timeline of this book. It felt like an attempt to make the plot more interesting than it was. 
6. Bad dialogue. The conversations between Briony and Toven were painful. Like, the real people talk like this? 

In the end it just wasn’t for me. I want to fall in love with the characters, (I’m a Libra after all) and the only character I fully liked was Larissa. Then at the very end, Serena, Toven’s mom. Everyone else felt hollow and distant. 

I am disappointed. That’s the long and short of it. 

It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

The consent in this book was dubious at best. Earl Westcliff def needs to learn to keep his hands to himself. I guess that this book was written in a different time but having someone say “get off me” and the person being like, “nah,” is very problematic. Especially since later we kind of play the same hand but this time it’s bad because that character isn’t the MMC of this particular book. 
I don’t know yall. I am reading this series because so many people I follow love the next book but having met the MMC of the next book in this one I am not entirely sure imma love him. And I love a broken man as much as the next woman. 
We shall see I guess. 

Silver Elite by Dani Francis

1.0

The push for this book makes it seem like it’s going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. I mean, have you guys had sliced bread? You know how good that is! This isn’t it. 
There were many parts that felt clumsy or put in to push the plot forward. The dialogue wasn’t the best and I saw just about every twist coming, but 1. 
This book keeps being called a dystopian romance which I thought, weird but I’ll bite.  But it didn’t feel dystopian to me. So much so that I looked up the definition of the word. So according to the official definition it is dystopian but it still didn’t feel quite right. The book also very much gave, “there are good people on both sides,” vibes, which are big time yikes. 

The push and pull between Wren and Cross was really weird. They are from diametrically opposite sides of the divide and are both just like okay with what the other is doing. There is one section where Cross is mad with Wren because he thought she was involved with one specific thing but otherwise, their reaction to each other’s lives felt strange. 

Wren made so many wrong choices back to back, especially at the end of the book that it was almost too much for me. How does this book  spend so much time telling me how smart and quick thinking this character is and then this? 
I don’t care enough about these characters to read book 2. Even with the ending. 

Lights Out by Navessa Allen

4.0

Can a book about a stalker with an accidental cannibalism trigger warning be funny? Why yes it can! This book is the epitome of the saying, para cada loco hay un loco, for every crazy person there is a crazy person. Their vibes and kinks match and they found each other! The world can be good.

The banter was funny and smart. The FMC wasn't helpless or unable to defend herself. She was a badass in her own right before the MMC came into the picture. The MMC was self aware.

And there was no third act breakup. I kept thinking there would be and grumbling about it but it didn't happen and I am glad. The third act was a bit of a mess though with her family involvement but it "felt" like a set up for something else. Then I read the description for the second book and I saw I was right. But even the soft launch of book 2 didn't hurt this one's rating.

May we all have someone who is obsessed with us enough to want to constantly take care of us, but still have boundaries.

Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Complicated and layered story. Tisaanah is everything you want in a FMC of a fantasy novel. Bold, brave, idyllic. She was both naive and cunning which is a difficult mix to obtain. She has lived as a slave with the hope that she could one day buy her freedom as the deplorable man who hold her captive had let her to believe. She ends up having to fight him and kill him for her freedom. Which she probably had to ability to do all along. Why do we as women so often cede our power to men. Waiting to be pushed to the brink before coming into it? Why do we need permission before we can ask someone to kindly step off our necks? 
Tisaanah is then imbued with a sentient magic called  Reshaye which is vengeful and powerful. It’s like all of Tisaanah’s rage in raw form. She has to learn to control it as it tries to control her. Something that Max had to do before. Except, Max never learned to control it. He just had someone (a woman!) take it out of him and then shoved everything into a box so that he could never think of it again. 
Am I looking into this book more deeply than it actual merits? IDK, maybe. I put the second one on hold immediately tho. So there is that. 

Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

The premise of this book is amazing. Tess our, FMC gets tracked down by one of the characters from her favorite fantasy books which surprise aren’t fantasy at all but basically a dramatic retelling. Why did the character specifically track Tess down? Because a post Tess made online about the book series went viral! Then she goes to where the vampires are and the hot one falls in love with her. 

Please dear god may all the post I make about The Shades Of Magic series go viral. I am ready for Holland to fall in love with me.

Anyway, Tess ends up not only snagging the hottie but defending him and his sister against the big bad. The things that she has to do sound within the realm of my capabilities so it feels more plausible. I know the whole premise is kooky, but if she also turned into a fighting machine it would’ve jumped the shark. 

This was a fun but not frivolous read.