April 2021 Reviews (ARCs)

You can click on any of the names in the list below to go directly to the review, or you can just scroll at your leisure and window shop 😉

List of Reviews in this post:

• Foretold
• World’s Worst Boyfriend
• Love Match
• The Merchant and The Rogue

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Foretold (The Scryers #1)

Synopsis:

Cassandra sees death and devastation all around her. In vivid detail.

It’s the price of living with her OCD and extreme anxiety. In every situation, Cass imagines the worst possible fate for everyone in her life. Her dad in a pool of blood after a break-in. Her beloved older neighbor, homeless. A splinter in her finger turned to gangrene.

But this time, it’s not her imagination. The boy next door, Colin, is destined to die. Cass has foretold a real death before; she knows this is a true vision.

Desperate to save Colin’s life, Cass immerses herself in a secret organization of soothsayers that promises to teach her how to change the future she foresees. But as she descends into their hidden world of divinatory magic and predictive technology, she discovers there’s always a price to pay for unraveling fate’s strands. And cheating death will cost her everything.

Review:

I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this!

At first I was a bit skeptical about this going in, but it was on Read Now, and the cover was amazing, and the synopsis did get me intrigued, so I got it.

And it was worth it. Mostly.

Honestly I had so little problems with this compared to what I expected after the first 30%. The plot wasn’t going anywhere, the characters were okay, but I didn’t care much about them, and I just didn’t care much about what happened.

But then, once I hit around 35%, I was really enjoying this! The plot I didn’t care for a lot, since I wasn’t completely sure what was going on, and honestly it was pretty easy to figure out who was the nefarious backstabber (there is such a thing as reading too many fantasy books and then predicting almost everything in most fantasy books), and what was going to be the main conflict.

I started getting engrossed with Reagan, Griffin, Noah, and Cassie’s friendship. I wasn’t much enjoying the romance, as I am wont to do in teen romances, but it wasn’t too bad. Except for the love triangle. But Cassie was pretty hellbent on the love interest, so it wasn’t that bad.

I loved the friendships formed, and the relationships Cassie would form with numerous people. The different teachers, with Bacchy, with the front desk guy, with the old lady from the shop, (yes, I do not remember all of their names).

The romance. I don’t know what to say, but the romance by itself wasn’t good. I had zero interest in it. The kinda insta love was slightly off putting, but the sorta love triangle did it for me. But still, I was pretty invested in how she would get him to not die.

I loved the insights into OCD and anxiety. I really love books that look into neuro-atypicalness, and I’m not sure why, but I love seeing the way something so normal to as knocking twice would not let Cassie live, and make her have the impulse to instead knock 5, or 10 times. If you don’t know, I really enjoyed The Monk.

It was amazing to see Cassie’s struggle with OCD, and with anxiety, and it really made me so happy, in a way, to read the lines:

One, two, three. This compulsion is not me.
Four, five, six. I control it. It doesn’t control me.

The way sometimes when Cassie was panicking, and she would say things repeatedly, but I was quite a lot of the way into the book when I realised that she would be saying stuff 5 times, or 10 times, and the fact that this would keep popping up everywhere would make me really excited for some reason.

As if these instances were easter eggs, scattered throughout the book. Small things, stuff you odn’t even notice easily, but which have so much significance. Cassie’s journey was amazing, and usually, if you read YA, these books end with an overcoming of the disorder, and a way to live with it, and not let it control your life.

While this book did that, somewhat, it was pretty different because this was NOT a happy ending. Like it was happy for the most part, but some things…

That ending was so shocking because I was NOT expecting it. I realised what was going to happen two seconds before I read the text, and it was a train wreck. Kinda literally.

Those were actually the only problems I had with this…hard to get into, and a abrupt ending. By the end, I was half sure that all of it was stuff she was imagining, but it was at the point where the death happened that I knew this was permanent.

I loved the insight into fortune telling and it’s many ways. The skill school trope (I have no idea what this is actually called, but 10 minutes and multiple google searches later, it seems that it’s called the Superhero school trope) is one of my absolute favourites, and this book did very well on that stuff! Some books don’t go into a lot of detail about the actual learning part, and start focusing on the plot exclusively, which is not one of my favourite things.

The one thing about this book I wasn’t completely sure about while getting into this book was dealing with the grief of Cassie’s mothers passing (not a spoiler). I find books that deal with grief very saddening, and I almost always wind up in a bad mood if someone dies and someone else has to deal with it. Throughout the books.

Though this one was one of the exceptions. I was sad, but I was also happy? Remembering who the people passed, and what they were for us, so that they may live on through us is such an amazing mindset.

On the whole, I really enjoyed this, and I recommend it to anyone who likes the skill school trope (let me know what this is called if you know), fortune telling info, will not mind waiting for the plot to start,good friendships, insight into OCD and anxiety, and characters dealing with grief.

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World’s Worst Boyfriend

Synopsis:

Fletcher is the “World’s Worst Boyfriend” and I have the trophy to prove it—along with the consolation gift card I’ve already spent.

Entering him into the anonymous contest was cathartic and eye opening. It’s obvious I need to end this farce of a relationship… so, I do.

Too bad I’m still comparing every man I meet to Fletcher.
Too bad I can’t get him out of my mind—or my house, for that matter, with the way he’s always stopping by to ‘fix’ something.
And it’s especially too bad that I’m learning not everything is as it seems, and that maybe, just maybe, Fletcher had a good reason for his actions. (Although, there is no justification for the moldy laundry.)

What’s a girl to do? He says he’ll explain everything soon. But am I ready to face that explanation? What if he’s really not the worst—what if I am?

Review:

I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

This is more 3.5 stars than 4.

This book was so ridiculous.

I honestly thought this was a normal rom-com going on, and within the first few chapters I knew I’d stumbled into something seriously different from what I was expecting.

It was seriously feel-good and and light-hearted, and had just the right amount of serious bits mixed in (which were few and far between) to make it into a mood lifter, but nothing more than that. I am glad that this was a short book, because I didn’t know if I could take any more of the ridiculousness.

This is a problem I regularly face; I like stuff that’s crack-fic like, but I can’t take it in large amounts. So ridiculousness is okay, just in pinches.

There were a few problems I had with this, one of the biggest was the attitude of Fletcher. I found him very insensitive in places; for example, he was adamant that their growing apart did not exist, and when Saidy called him on it, he refused to believe her. And then kept on like that.

I didn’t like that Saidy ended up taking much ore of the responsibility for their growing apart and breaking up than I felt she should have. Fletcher didn’t think from her perspective at all. He more or less just cannot see that from her side of things, he was being seriously neglectful.

Even with the excuse he had, it just didn’t sit completely right with me; why start a romance when you can’t be honest with her at all?

Another thing that didn’t completely sit right with me was Fletcher’s somewhat entitlement (I’m not completely sure what to call this). When he was broken up with her, and she had made it pretty clear she didn’t want him near her, I didn’t like the way he would just keep showing up without her notice, and then behave seriously overprotectively.

While that kind of behaviour is completely swoon worthy when you know who the final love interest is, if this had been an actual ex boyfriend who kept popping up and touching her at times and then refusing to let go, not giving back his keys, and sneaking into her house at all times, regardless of whether his intentions were honourable, this would have been a very different story.

I was really shocked by the mystery plotline since I was just not expecting anything of the sort, but it wasn’t completely boring, and it was definitely funny to see Saidy stumbling over clues and whatnot.

The villain was so bland though, and with like zero motivation by the end of the story, which made the ending kinda underwhelming. But, by then I was ready to be over with this because my crack limit had been reached.

On the whole, a very funny and feel-good romance, but not one to be taken very seriously, and with a spot of mystery thrown in. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a lighthearted pastime, and something not serious, who likes second chance romances and secret identities.

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Love Match

Synopsis:

Serena McAllister is devastated to find her fiancé has cheated on her—again. When she learns her newspaper is outsourcing jobs to freelance writers, she’s desperate to land the last remaining staff position. Unfortunately, her rival Jane Childers wants the coveted spot as well, and she’s just as determined.

Vowing to do whatever it takes to get her life in order, Serena decides to join a modern-day harem and write a provocative article about the objectification of women across the world to land her dream job at the newspaper.

When Serena arrives at the tiny tropical paradise known as Birin Island, she meets Prince Shailemon Sharma, who is dealing with his own issues of archaic customs in his homeland.

As sparks begin to fly, they discover that attraction can lead to so much more—and that there are no barriers of culture or country when love is on the line.

Review:

I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I have never been as disappointed by an ARC as I was with this.

I have so many issues with this. The first and foremost: THE COVER IS A F*CKING LIE.

I think I have the right to be angry if the cover has a Taj Mahal on it, and there proceeds to be exactly ZERO mention of India in the book. I kept hoping there would be like a field trip or something to Agra, but NO. I’m making a cover-was-a-lie shelf for this book right now.

I am so irritated that I will be plagiarising my status updates, and will be ranting throughout this review. In the nicest way possible.

The fact that this is supposed to be set in the Pacific Island, which is near so many different countries, but the only POCs are the king, his best friend/trusted adviser, and the villain. And yeah the villain’s family and such are also POCs, but we never get to know them at all. I would honestly think that there would be more POC characters.

The MC is white, the cliche bully russian/white (It was never completely clear to me), and the other characters of the coterie are not described. The handler of these girls is french. And of course the MC’s side is all white, which is not a problem, but why are the only people the MC seem to interact with on this island all non POC?!

It’s nothing very off putting, but because I was already angry that there wasn’t any India, we have this added benefit of having nearly zero people who might even be asian.

You would think that if it’s a palace, we would meet more people, but we have a pretty small cast. Though I think that was because of the Serena’s and Shai’s ‘romance’.

Not even hours into their first meeting, they’re already kissing. And then more kissing. And then even more kissing. Then mo—you get the point.

And then they have sex. Because this is the natural progression of a relationship built on two days of mutual kissing, and the sharing of past trauma. While I’m onboard for this sort of thing if it’s like conducive to the story and does not end up in them falling in love in the next 48 hours, unfortunately that wasn’t the case for this.

A WEEK. ONE F*CKING WEEK. That’s ALL it took.

The only saving grace for this was that it was short, honestly, I don’t think I could have kept reading this.

Another thing that bothered me was the lack of research Serena had done before getting herself enrolled in a coterie; why would a woman get herself into a coterie, fully expecting it to be a harem?!?! Didn’t she know that she would be signing NDAs and whatnot, and also some amount of sex, consensual or otherwise (because this was what she went expecting), but none of this seems to cross her mind?!

How on earth did she not research the difference between a coterie and harem!?! One google search would have told her that a coterie is a group of like minded and close-knit people, and a harem is a group of women living together, as wives or concubines, or just living together. No where in the multiple definitions of coterie is sex mentioned. (I might not be right about this, my GK comes from books and google, please tell me if I’m wrong)

What kind of journalist doesn’t research her topic of interest, and just go into it uninformed!? I did not think journalism was such a profession, but who knows.

At 74% into the book, there’s a quote

“Should she have known his coterie was not a traditional harem? If she had done more research instead of hopping on the first available flight, would she have uncovered this little tidbit of information?”

and I was so outraged at this paragraph.

Then the article that does end up writing gave me a bad feelings because I don’t think it was right for her to write it. This is spoilery, so 

View Spoiler

The article she wrote was NOT based in a coterie she actually experienced first hand, which was supposed to be the main selling point of the article. It’s literally the title of the article that’s along the lines of ‘Journalist goes undercover at modern Harem’, but she didn’t experience that harem first hand. All her information is hearsay, which is not something you’re supposed to trust without proof when you’re writing an expose. Is this not falsifying in a way? Fraud? Not sure of the correct term, but I did not like this.

Another thing that rubbed me wrong was the fact that the people on Birin Island are so inefficient!? I would think if you were handing a person a ticket into the lives of royalty, the first thing you would get done would be to get NDAs signed. And more important than that, how on earth did none of these people perform a proper background check!??!

What kind of staff is this!? You don’t want journalists peeking into the inner workings of your lives and your court, but you will not perform a background check!? And on top of that, Serena uses her real name?! Don’t journalists chasing articles like this have to go undercover?!?

Yet another thing that bothered me: You would think that being a Prince you would know who to control your emotions, being in the spotlight all the time, but Shai has literally no control over his emotions. The rival king insinuates some stuff, and Shai just loses it and starts strangling him. I do not like such characters. My preferences for rich bad boys include a mask of cool calm and cutting words that ensure that you’ll never try that again. But to each their own, I suppose.

And yet another thing that bothered me: Why would you take a clearly untrained woman with like zero manners and knowledge of how to conduct herself among people who are trying to take your kingdom from you, on the same day you found her half drunk, oh so clumsy, and very stoned. Are there no rules about what all would reflect badly on a guy trying to get the throne?!

An yet another thing that bothered me: one would think that being a prince, you would lock doors before sleeping in the room, if nothing else then for security because you’re in a country ruled by a guy who’s trying to take your throne and there’s no guarantee you’d be murdered int he dead of night?! But nOo, you leave the door unlocked.

And yet one more thing: there was not one scene in this book that had emotional growth but was not followed immediately by a sex scene where all previous emotional growth goes down the drain, and it’s as if the emotional scenes were just just there to ensure the characters have sex next. Which is NOT how I like it to work.

And then after she has the realisation that she’s in lurve with the bootiful prince, her mother and best friend do absolutely NOTHING to talk her down. IT HAS BEEN ONE WEEK. I don’t know about other people, but I depend on my mother for being the voice of reason when I talk to her if I’m in a bad mood.

The only other woman of the coterie we meet with like actual dialogues is Ekaterina, from Russia, and she’s a bully. Because how else would we have conflict and room for angst. And the only way her secret would come out, because THESE PEOPLE DON’T DO BACKGROUND CHECKS.

All of their dialogue is super cringey, and nearly nothing is actually funny. The characters are trying to hard banter, but it’s obvious to the reader that it’s pretty forced. And Serena is so clumsy. It’s all she does for so long in the book, that one has to wonder if she wasn’t drunk the entire time.

Then at the end, when there’s talk about marriage, Serena imagines that the marriage will be at the altar. And I’m like, is this set in Asia or not!? Because I’ve not had any indication of Christianity up till now, so I’m assuming there will be some traditional rituals, which will most likely not involve any altars. yes, I’m drawing from Hindu marriages, but I’m reasonably sure about this.

And then, I was so surprised that Shai would be marrying with like half a day of notice. Are not royal weddings supposed to be the event of the year or something?! I can’t in good faith believe that this marriage didn’t have a longer engagement. Or even more notice, because then how are the distinguished guests going to come for it?!

The there was a bit where he told his assistant/best friend to tell the press that the bride cancelled the wedding. And the reasoning he gives for this is that this way the girl’s’ reputation would not be harmed. Which is so weird because would not this statement put out the impression that this is a girl that gets herself engagements and then doesn’t follow!? Maybe a mutual disagreement would have been a better statement. Or even that Shai cancelled it.

Then there were some dialogues/paragraphs of Serena’s mother nearly accosting Tareek, and I honestly felt like it was a little like molestation, because it was very weird. The sexual insinuations were weird, and made me feel a little sick.

And at the end, they have sex again. In a car. Which is incorrectly parked. Taking all their time. I hope to God that the car was soundproofed and had tinted windows, because that would have been so traumatising for all passing people. And possible fodder for journalists.

I’m stopping here because I think I’ve covered everything I wanted to cover, and because I don’t want to dwell on this book anymore. I would recommend this only to people looking for a short fast book, and have no care for anything to make sense.

Pre-reading review:
I’m a simple girl, I see Taj Mahal, I automatically go to see what it’s about. I see it’s a romance, and I automatically request it.

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The Merchant and The Rogue

Synopsis:

London, 1865 Vera Sorokina loves reading the Penny Dreadfuls and immersing herself in tales of adventure, mystery, and romance. Her own days are filled with the often mundane work of running the book and print shop she owns with her father. The shop offers her the freedom and income to employ and protect the poverty-stricken Londoners she’s come to care about, and it gives her father something to do other than long for their hometown of St. Petersburg. She is grateful for the stability in their lives, but she often feels lonely.

Brogan Donnelly was born and raised in Ireland, but has lived in London for several years, where he’s built a career as a Penny Dreadful writer. He has dedicated himself to the plight of the poor with the help of his sister. His membership in the secretive Dread Penny Society allows him to feel he isn’t entirely wasting his life, yet he feels dissatisfied. With no one to share his life with but his sister, he fears London will never truly feel like home.

Brogan and Vera’s paths cross, and the attraction is both immediate and ill-advised. Vera knows from past experience that writers are never to be trusted, and Brogan has reason to suspect not everything at her print shop is aboveboard. When the growing criminal enterprise run by the elusive and violent Mastiff begins targeting their area of London, Brogan and Vera must work together to protect the community they’ve both grown to love. But that means they’ll need to learn to trust each other with dangerous secrets that have followed both of them from their home countries.

Review:

I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

This was better than the last, but nowhere near the first.

I don’t know where this series went wrong, but with the first amazing book, the less than enjoyable second, and this marginally better Third, I don’t know whether this series is worth keeping up with any more. I will most likely read the next instalments too, but I don’t know where the potential that the first one had went.

This book actually had conflict, and angst, and actual character differences, so compared to the second one, this one was amazing. But compared to what drew me to this series, the first book, it still wasn’t that good.

The plot is alright, but I honestly thought this was just going to be a trilogy, so it was a bit disappointing to see that nothing much ended up happening except that the most notorious and previously thought most dangerous criminal got caught. But now there’s an even worse one, so we’re more or less back to square one?

I like that this explored the way the members of the Dread Penny society were facing numerous problems with being able to tell their family members, but I would have liked the resolution in this book? I would have loved to see the ending actually including the decision and it’s consequences at the end.

Vera and Brogan’s romance was so many levels above Ana and Hollis, just because there was angst. I’m telling you, after The Gentleman and The Thief, I’ll enjoy nearly everything if there’s actual conflict; the book was just so boring. But this is not the review for that book, so you can go and read my grievances there.

The penny dreadfuls have gotten boring though? the first book ones were amazing, though I didn’t i>love the vampire one; in the second book they were alright, but the gentleman and thief one seemed out of place because in the first Elizabeth was drawing inspiration form her life, but here she seems to be drawing inspiration from two other people’s lives that she is not actually privy to, so it seems weird?; and in the third, the same problem was there, and in both the second and third book I didn’t completely love the ones not by Mr. King.

The Dead Zoo one was okay, but the ending was like those creepy ones where you’re left like WHAT OH NO like those Ruskin Bond ones where you realise 5 minutes after reading the ending the creepy meaning of what was actually happening. Or even Roald Dahl level ones. Or even those Enid Blyton short story endings, if you’ve read Anytime Tales or ones like that.

Honestly, my favourite parts of this book were when we had cameos of Elizabeth and Fletcher, so that should tell you a lot about how this ended up being.

The ending was not to my liking because it seemed really incomplete. We just left the story when we could have done with a couple more chapters to explain what happens next with Vera. And the other thing I didn’t like about it was the permanency.

In both this book and the last, we end with a typical historical romance ending where the characters end up marrying but I loved the open ending of the first book a lot more. Fletcher and Elizabeth don’t end up marrying and are still courting, and honestly that is the best ending because it subverts insta-love so well. And in both this and the last, the proposal seems too early and jarring compared to the voice of the first book.

I laughed so loud when he reason behind Vera’s father’s’ hate were revealed, which was not the correct emotion to display but it was so funny somehow? Like of course this would be the reason, how else could this have possibly ended. In like a sarcastic way. But my BR partner agreed with me, so I think I’m not completely mad. Yet.

One the main likes for me about this series is that the characters are all middle class or middle class adjacent, which allows for a lot of other stories to be told than the typical historical romance involving earls, dukes, and marquesses.

On the whole, an alright book by itself, but not a very good sequel. I would recommend it to readers of this series, but to take this recommendation with a grain of salt because you might not find the magic of the first one in this. And also to anyone who likes the secret hidden identity trope, friends to lovers trope, historical romances that do focus on plot and do it somewhat well, and ones involving the middle class.

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Well, that’s it for this month’s ARCs! Love Match was a pretty big disappointment, but the others were amazing!