***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

I am now officially calling 2016 the year of the meh books because I have yet to read a book that has truly blown my mind and makes me want to roll around in the mud with joy. Banished is by no means a bad book, I would actually say that on the whole, it was a lot better than its predecessor but my problem with the book and what prevented me from loving it was the shit ton of romantic drama.

Romantic drama is the bane of my existence. Why cannot two people love each other and that be it? Why is it that there has to be 50000000 complications before my otp can be together? UGH. I am okay with *some* drama as long as I get groveling but when the main couple basically faces a new hurdle every couple of pages, I cannot. I want my couples to be able to work together as a team and trust each other. Trust is IMPORTANT and my rant is starting to get out of hand so let me pull myself together. Give me a second. I am alive. Okay. So within the context of this book (can you tell that the drama frustrated me?), I just wanted Jayden and Kadesh’s reunion to be a sweet one rather than them forming another fragile relationship after everything they had been through in Forbidden.

Now that I have that major rant out of the way I can calm the fuck down (to some extent) and talk about everything else in the book. WE GO ON A JOURNEY. And I like journeys so I really liked that aspect of the book. The stakes were super high and it was so so fun (I am a closet thrill-junkee…. SHHHHH.)

Jayden has also come so far since Forbidden. Her strength was admirable in Forbidden but it always seemed a little naive. In Banished; however, Jayden has matured so much that I just wanted to hug her and tell her I was proud. What? All characters are secretly my children. Kadesh on the other hand did not fair as well. He was still swoony but the fact that he chose to keep things a secret because he wasn’t ready to deal with issues was not a good thing. I realize he kept them a secret not because he didn’t think Jayden was ready because he wasn’t ready (which is better than nothing) but I was not satisfied. I am going to stop right here because otherwise, I will go on another long rant about romance stuff since that seriously disappointed me.

The setting also continues to be amazing. This time we got to see even more of the world and that made me happy since world building is always really important. I did notice that religion became a part of this story in a way it wasn’t in Forbidden. Or maybe I just noticed it more? It wasn’t like shoved down our throats which is nice but I also felt like the way religion was done wasn’t necessarily accurate given the era? I don’t want to say more because again, things get out of hand when I go on and on about something completely off topic. I am just really bad, aren’t I? You should all treat yourselves to chocolate if you are still here and reading my review. YOU HAVE EARNED IT.

So what else can I talk about? The ending? YOU MEAN THAT THING THAT HAD ME BITTING MY NAILS AND MAKES ME WANT TO BEG THE AUTHOR FOR BOOK 3? yeah that thing. it was okay I guess. *flips hair and walks out*

But on a serious note, if you are looking for a book set in a completely different time period, this is it. You have come to the right place, the Mesopotamian setting of the series is what appealed to me in the first place and now here I still am because the characters and the great plots keep me coming back for more.

Note that I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

Marriage of convenience? A romance between people of the serving class as opposed to aristocracy? YES PLEASE. When I read the blurb for Listen to the Moon, I knew I needed this book in my life and was excited to read it especially since I loved A Lily Among Thorns. I wasn’t even really surprised that I ended up loving this one.

My main issue with the book was that towards the end, there was a little too much drama and angst for my tastes but that’s really about it.

I didn’t know going into the book that the two MCs would have a huge age gap and I was a little nervous because age-gaps can either be gross or so well-done that you forget about it. The romance was really neither of those. Lerner did not shy away from exploring the weirdness of a relationship where there is an giant age difference. The romance between John and Sukey is awkward and hard but also full of so much compassion and understanding. They aren’t a perfect couple but they are perfect for each other. I LOVE this about the romance. I love that there are some real misunderstandings that arise from both of them feeling as though they cannot communicate with one another. This isn’t just plain-ole miscommunication, it’s so much more than that.

Even though John clearly has feelings for Sukey, he sometimes has a hard time treating her like an equal since she is so much younger than he is. He ends up treating her like a little girl and Sukey, for her part, also acts like one. She wants to be comforted and protected, but also wants to be treated as an equal. Throughout the book these two struggle to find a balance in their relationship and it’s GREAT seeing them do that. Also, it is a marriage of convenience but they don’t fall in love with each other a few weeks later. It’s actually kind of awesome. A couple weeks into their marriage, John even states that he isn’t quite in love with Sukey but can see himself falling into love. It’s so great that it isn’t a denial of his feelings but more of him admitting to really care about Sukey while also stating that he isn’t quite in love yet. HOW MANY TIMES DOES THIS HAPPEN and isn’t a denial? Not a lot in my experience.

As you can probably surmise, these two undergo a LOT of character development over the course of the book and it is AMAZING. Who doesn’t love character development? YAY.

Listen to the Moonis definitely one of the better historical romances I’ve read and if you’re looking to read an HR with a romance that is messy, complicated and totally worth it in the end, Listen to the Moon

Note that I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

Espionage, Dreamstriding, Political Intrigue, PRETTY COVER.

Those are very tempting things to this reader. They made this reader's heart flutter with anticipation and made her very excited. So what does this reader think about the book? Does she think it was amazeballs or meh? Or somewhere in between perhaps?

This book was great but I also wanted a little bit more.It's harder to explain that in terms of this book because I finished the book feeling great and felt a lot of love for it but there are also things I wish there was more focus on.

Like the world building and the romance. I also wanted more tension. I wanted a book that would make me nervous as I read it because I would be trying to figure out what these characters next move would be. I wanted higher stakes (although it is funny I should say that given how high the stakes were already.)

So let me start with these things I wish were developed a little bit more. World building is crucial to all books (even contemporaries in some ways!) And the world building in this book was good, it just wasn't great. I loved the idea of Dreamstriders, and priests and the dreamers but there is also so much more that I would have liked to know. I wanted to know more about the world of Oneiros and Nightmare thing. I wanted to know about the experiments and the shards and so many things. This book is so unique and unlike anything I've heard of so when I went into this world, I expected to be blown away. I expected there to be drool coming out of my mouth as a gaped in awe but that didn't happen. Don't get me wrong, the details that were disclosed to us readers made me so excited but I also cannot help imagining what this book would have been like if we got more details.

I also adored the romance, but I also wanted more development in that area. The relationship between Livia and Brandt is fantastic and it is so clear to us that they both have feelings for each other but I would have liked more 'spark' moments. I LOVE LOVE LOVE slow burn but at the same time even with slow burn romances, there is an underlying, bubbling tension and I didn't feel that as much in the case of this book. Or maybe I focus on romance too much *shrugs* Don't take my need for more romance as a negative aspect of the book because it really isn't. These two characters are GREAT together and I shipped 'em like crazy and was waiting dying for them to get together. 

Livia, one half of this awesome sauce ship, is a fantastic female lead. I am not even sure what makes her great except that she is someone that is so easy to relate to for me.She is awkward, often times unsure of herself but also smart and capable. She is realistic given where she came from and I love the way she develops over the course of the book and the realizations she has.

The secondary characters in the book are also fantastic and there is some diversity SO YAY (because diversity is fantastic IMO.)  Lindsay develops so many of these characters. They may be minor but they sure as hell aren't bland.

The premise is perhaps what had me most excited about this book because I was curious to see how Lindsay would blend dreams and espionage together and boy did she deliver. The dream world was used in interesting ways to gather information and it didn't feel amateur. The people knew what they were doing. I do wish though that we got a little bit more of the political side of things. I wanted to know how the nobles interacted, I wanted to be shown all the ways they got their hands dirty rather than be told that they engaged in fishy stuff. I wanted more tension.

This book is very much about Livia's journey to self-acceptance and finally coming to peace with her abilities so other things kind of faded into the background. Overall though, this book is such a great read. It's SO MUCH fun and I cannot think of a reason why you shouldn't read this (unless espionage or dreams aren't really your thing.)

Note that I received an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

I cannot tell you how much I wanted to love this book and how disappointed I am that it didn’t sweep me away. There are SO many things I love about this book but the slowness of it became a big issue for me.

Slow books can be a hit or miss for me. A Thousand Nightswas neither a hit nor a miss. I loved the beautiful lyrical writing, I loved the characters and I loved the world building. What I didn’t love was the lack of action. By now, you might know that one of my favorite things ever is action. This is partially because I am an impatient human (wait am I a human? WHAT?) but also because I become more invested in a story if there is something happening.

There isn’t a lot happening in A Thousand Nights. In fact, the most exciting stuff happens in the last 15% of the book. Do you think you can wait that long for the good stuff? Do you think that absolutely stunning writing, fantastic characters and breathtaking world building is enough to get you through almost 85% of nothing? I still don’t know the answer to this question and I already finished the book. I think what got me through those lulls was just the way Johnston built tension. There would be a slow simmer of tension and then suddenly everything would be boiling and then it would go back to a simmer.

Johnston does a fantastic job with setting up the world of this story. I felt myself transported across the centuries to this middle-eastern land. I could imagine the heat of the desert and the beauty of the palace. I could see Lo-Melkhien amongst this world suffering. The way Johnston weaves the story and brings the world to life makes it feel like you’re reading a folk tale. It makes everything seem so magical and compelling.

Overall, my main issue was that I just wanted the book to move a little more faster so that I could have been a little more invested in the story and what was happening to these characters. Also I totally wouldn’t have minded if there had been a little bit more romance.

Note that I received an eARC of the book in exchange for an honest review

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

You know what makes me happy? That YA Westerns are finally becoming a thing. One of my favorite (and most anticipated books of the year) was a YA Western and as soon as I heard thatVengeance Road was a YA Western (AND SAW THAT BEAUTIFUL COVER), I was sold. I ached with the need to read this book. I could already see I would fall head over heels for this tale of revenge and was so excited to dive in. This book was amazing but the reason I cannot say that this book is the best thing ever is because of the few minor issues I had.  BUT LET ME TELL YOU, this book does the genre justice.

I am going to start off with my few criticisms and then move on to why this book was flipping amazing.

My no.1 problem with this book was how Native Americans came up in the book. There was a lot of distrust between Native Americans and the Caucasians at the time and the author does a good job in portraying that distrust. The problem is that I wanted something more, something that would go beyond just acknowledging the hypocrisy and would go into the details of the injustice being committed. Especially since one of the secondary characters in the book happens to be Native American. But some of the things the MC said were from a place of privilege and I wanted to see another side of her that acknowledges these privileges and that there was a LOT of injustice committed by her people.

My other problem was that sometimes the cowboy slang (idk what else to call it) being used grated on me.Now, I won’t say that I am a huge stickler for proper grammar because I make mistakes all the time, but after a while the Is get annoying.  That being said, I think that for the most part, Bowman nailed the language aspect and the fact that it grated on me doesn’t really speak on whether or not I thought Bowman made a good choice. Personally, I think it actually brought the story to life and made me feel like I was right there in the wild west.

Moving on to the good bits, Kate is an AMAZING female lead. She is someone you cannot help but root for and I had so much fun watching her go on this adventure. After her father is brutally murdered, she is out for blood. She wants revenge and her blood is filled with this need for vengeance. So our adventure begins. Along the way, Kate meets two men and one of them will come to mean a lot to her.

My favorite thing about Kate is how strong she is despite her loss. I love that she is able to hold her own and is just as badass as any other cowboy out there. She may not always realize when having other people around is a good thing but given that she was disguised as a boy, one can imagine why she would go out of her way to avoid hanging out with people.  But she also develops over the course of the book and learns what is really important and I loved being there with her and enjoying the journey with her.

Then we get these amazing secondary characters that join Kate on her journey but they don’t seek vengeance, they seek GOLD. Jesse and Will are so much fun to read about. Will may be someone who comes off as immature but he managed to surprise me when it came down to important stuff. He was never naïve and was always aware of the risks, perhaps even more so than Jesse. Jesse could sometimes be too ambitious but he was also sweet, closed off and SO ADORABLE.

One of my favorite things about this book, besides the characters is how fantastically Bowman brings this historical setting to life.With her choice of words, her choice of scenes, everything. There are gold hunts, gun fights, running away in the dark, and just good ole riding off in the dusk. Everything in this book screams western and I LOVED it.

There is this one twist towards the end that I didn’t necessarily enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very interesting twist and I didn’t see it coming but I also saw no need for it. It didn’t really twist my mind the way one would expect something like that would. It just seem like something that was thrown in but never fully explored and thus I felt as though the book would have actually been better off without it.

Never the less, this was a very good read for me and one I won’t fail to recommend because who doesn’t love them some cowboys and a good ole fashioned adventure?

Note that I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review