Tag: thre stars

The Damned – Renee Ahdieh

☆☆☆

Published Date – 07/07/2020

This story follows on from Renee Ahdieh’s first book ‘The Beautiful’. Bastein has awoken cursed and immortal. A treaty has been broken, and his life as he knows it, is about to change forever. Celine has paid the highest price though, and attempts a life without Bastien, but her dreams terrorise her and keep her awake at night. But what do they mean? She is also about to learn the truth about herself and her past…

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley & Hodder & Stoughton for allowing me to read an ARC of The Damned!

I wasn’t too optimistic about reading this book to begin with after not really enjoying ‘The Beautiful’, but I can definitely say I was pleasantly surprised! This book had a lot of what the first lacked, suspense, mystery, and action.

The book begins exactly where the last ended, with Bastien coming back around – and Celine, gone. It’s unclear whether Bastien will survive his transition, and they can only hope!

I just felt like there was so much more to this than ‘The Beautiful’. It was fast paced, and had me keep wanting more and more from it! I enjoyed how the vampire characters were explored more, and that it was more about the vampire side of the story.

There’s a bit of romance in this, but not nearly enough to be considered cringey *cough* TWILIGHT.

I also like how there’s more to Celine’s story in this book too, I felt like in the last she was a little ‘wishy washy’ and quite a flat character. In ‘The Damned’ Celine’s past is explored and things come to light that make sense, and make the story that much more interesting. Especially as it turns out that her bloodline is a known enemy to vampires. And I think this will make it an interesting story for the next book, if there is to be one. There is still a lot of unanswered questions that I’d like answers to, and I feel as though the story could definitely go on, as it was kind of a ‘cliff-hanger’ ending!

Now I’m all for lots of different characters in a book, and I LOVE reading from the perspectives of them, but when reading like ten characters thoughts it gets a bit much. I felt as though sometimes it was unnecessary for certain parts to be included, and at times it got confusing working out who was who, who was good, who was bad…

I do also think that the story perhaps dragged just a little longer than I felt it necessary, but overall I did enjoy the book. And based on this one alone, I look forward to reading the next in the series!

We Are Blood And Thunder – Kesia Lupo

She who spins the cloud, weaves the storm.

☆☆☆

We Are Blood and Thunder focuses on the perspectives of both Lena and Constance. The book is about a large storm cloud that has covered Duke’s Forest for around 6 years, and the Justice has assumed that it is a mage that created the storm cloud spell. Because of this accusation, anyone who is found to be a mage, is basically sentenced to death – so all mages are in hiding! When Lena is being chased by the Justice’s hounds out in the forest, she meets Constance, who points her in the direction of Emris, who is able to help Lena build and develop her magic! Whilst Lena is working on herself, Constance is trying to find the heart of the storm, but what is she really up to?

I quite enjoyed this story, it’s different to what I have read in quite a long time, so it’s nice to pick up a fantasy every once in a while! Unfortunately it just lacked in a lot of areas, I felt that the ending in particular was very rushed and could have been delved into a little deeper! In light of that, I found that parts throughout the story really dragged, and there was a lot of unnecessary information that didn’t particularly add to the story.


I would definitely say that it is more of Young Adult Fantasy novel with the simplistic writing style, but this does make the book easy and quick to read! I would recommend anyone between maybe 11-16 to read this possibly? Obviously this is personal opinion, I didn’t hate the book at all and I did enjoy it! IT just wasn’t an ‘outstanding’ story.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman

☆☆☆

Eleanor Oliphant is a girl with the perfect routine, every day, Monday to Friday she works for a company she has ALWAYS worked for. Then on a Friday, she will go to the same shop and ALWAYS buy the same two bottles of vodka, ready for the weekend. Eleanor isn’t a great lover of change, she likes her routine, and she enjoys life by herself. But one night a stranger comes into Eleanor’s life for a brief moment, and everything changes, however, will she cope?

This review has taken me some time to write as I have just been so unsure about it, ever since I finished it! I was really hoping for BIG things with this book, as I know so many of you loved it, but I just didn’t? I found it extremely slow! It wasn’t until the third part of the book until it started picking up a little and even then it just wasn’t a massive page-turner for me. – I know that this will be a very unpopular opinion to many, and it probably doesn’t help that I’ve read so many fast-paced books recently, that it just didn’t catch my attention. I found that I’d read a few pages, and then put it down for a day or two, so it felt like a real chore trying to finish it!

That being said like I mentioned, it does begin to pick up in the third part of the book, which I did quite enjoy and once I got to this part it was much easier to keep going! Rather than putting it down continuously.

I did like the way Honeyman portrays how Eleanor has really struggled for a long time, and she perhaps didn’t really realise it. Especially with her Mum, I found the ending for those two very eye-opening on how people deal with abuse, grief and just battles with their own minds… My own struggles don’t compare to how Eleanor’s are, so it was good to see how other people also deal with their problems too! Eleanor struggled with childhood trauma, alcoholism, grief, and maybe even PTSD. But she hasn’t struggled through these problems for YEARS on her own. She enjoyed the idea of being on her own on the weekends, the book eve mentions that sometimes she would go three or four days without seeing or talking to anyone. Now, this, for anyone, is extremely unhealthy, but she just felt like she had no one to talk to.

I loved the way that Raymond really became quite a big part of Eleanor’s life and helped her get back on her feet when things really went downhill. He is a good example of how a friend should be when their friend is struggling, like making sure they get the help they need!

Eleanor Oliphant wasn’t a bad book at all, it just wasn’t for me at all, but I know that so so many people LOVED it. So I would still encourage others to try and read it too if they get the chance! I know that there have been other books that have been said to be on par with this such as The Cactus by Sarah Haywood and A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, both of which are on my TBR list, so I really hope to enjoy those!

Have you read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine? What were your thoughts on it?

Good Girl – Miranda Smith

‘She seems perfect. It’s the perfect disguise…’

☆☆☆

Publish Date – 24th June 2020

So this was my first @netgalley book, so I quite enjoyed being one of the first people to read and review this book!

It was a bit of a slow start so I wasn’t completely invested in the first section of the book. Once I’d got through about 25% that definitely changed. I loved the way each chapter changed from the perspective of the past and the present. ⠀⠀

As the book goes on it shows layers and layers of the plot of the book. It’s not really a ‘who done it’ kind of book, I guessed pretty much from the off who the person causing all the trouble was, as it was very obvious. But that’s not to say it was bad for that reason, I found that it really worked. It was just frustrating when no one believed Della!

Throughout the story you are told of the relationship between Della and her brother, Brian when they were younger. Over the years Della and Brian obviously don’t get along and have their issues. But Della has always known about Brian’s dark side, but no one ever believes her…

In the present day Della has, what you would consider, a normal life. She’s a married woman and has the job of a teacher. It isn’t until Zoey joins the school that Della’s life is turned upside down. She see’s something in Zoey… The same as what she saw in Brian all those years ago… But again, no one believes her… Will it be too late?

Overall I enjoyed the book, it was a quick read and different to anything I have read before. I would definitely recommend this book to others!