This was a… rough reading month, even though I intended just to read only books I had a good feeling on. I read 7 books and did not finish one book.
I’ll start with the books I read, from best to worse, ending on the one book I did not finish.
Children of Blood and Bone by Toni Adeyemi — 4.5 stars
My god, this book. It drew me in from the beginning and would not let go. The world-building and Zélie had me hooked from the beginning and my enjoyment was doubled when Amari joined the group. The ending had me wishing for more and I can’t wait for the sequel.
My only hang up were the romances. They were very heterosexual even when Zélie/Amari was just screaming to be a ship. The romances as they were took away from my investment of Inan, which had an interesting character arc, but it was so heavy intertwined with the romance I found myself wishing I could skip the parts of the book in his point of view.
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert — 4 stars
This one really took me by surprise. It’s super atmospheric for a book which majority takes place in a non-magical NYC. Alice was a very compelling character and I wasn’t ever annoyed with her anger. Finch was also a great side-kick and if the next book focuses on him, I might have to pick it up even if this can be read as a stand-alone.
Huge warning for stalking/being watched, though. Those part were real disturbing, like listening to a true-crime podcast before bed.
Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron — 3.5/5 stars
So remember how I described this book as “gay angels”? Turns out I was wrong. There are gays and there are angels but the f/f relationship is between humans not the human and angel.
It was sweet and it was great to see a trope made gay with an interesting post-dystopian setting, but it didn’t go higher in rating because it just didn’t go that extra mile.
Hurrican Child by Kacen Callender — 3.5/5 stars
This was a middle grade book with some fantastical elements, but overall the focus wasn’t on the fantasy, but on Caroline finding her mom and navigating her messy family life. She does fall for her friend who’s another girl, but I’m not sure how I feel about it.
This book also kind of skips around with scenes and the fantastical element meant I wasn’t always sure when things were taking place.
The Princess and the Evil Queen by Lola Andrews — 3/5 stars
It’s an adult f/f fantasy retelling of Snow White. It was pretty average and by the middle I started to skim the sex scenes and slow scenes. I wrote a review on it here!
Switchback by Danika Stone — 2 stars
It was average, and it kind of made me realize I don’t like survival stories, but the dialogue ruined it. I wrote a review here!
Survival by A.M. Hargrove — 1 star
Somehow this was more enjoyable than the book I DNF, but I think that’s because it was laughably bad. I got this for free when I was like 12 and I still wish I could get my money back.
There was insta-love, the boyfriend was creepy as shit, there was so much telling not showing, the MC goes from abled to disabled to magically abled again, and there’s baely any description of their surroundings.
I only picked this up because of my randomized 2019 TBR.
Splintering Reality by Catherine Kopf — 2/5 stars
DNF at 12%. I got this for free because it was on sale for a short amount of time. I only picked it up because like I said, free, and the author said you could read this book without reading the first. In actuality, I was pretty confused and kind of felt it was poorly written. So I decided to put the book down because the book’s purpose was to just relax with after I was studying with finals.
After I posted all that on GoodReads (with a 2 star rating), the author posted this thread which I… I’m still not sure how to take.
No TBR for June. I will be participating in Queer Lit Readathon so check that TBR out if you haven’t already (and join if you can!). Beyond that, I’ll just be reading what I feel like reading, but I promise you, it will all be gay (minus the 4 books for my summer class I have to read).
Have any of you read one of these books? What’d you think?
Kappa Reads 