I love, love, love this series. The Blackcoat Rebellion is a series not many have read. And it is one of those series that you either love or hate. I absolutely love it!!!

Ever since I read the first page of the first book Carter had me hooked. This series is incredible. It’s so fast-paced. There are so many twists and surprises. I couldn’t stop reading. Now the last installment has come out and again Carter had me wrapped around her little finger. The characters are fantastic. I love Kitty and Knox. I am disgusted by Daxton Hart’s cruelty. I am fascinated by Greyson’s brilliance. This book series has everything I love in a great book. I will continue recommending this book series even though not everyone loves it as much as I do. I can’t wait for Carter’s next book and I hope I will like it as much as I loved this series.

Fairest is the first novella I have ever read. I just do not care for novellas. I see them as money-grabbing extras that do not add to the story and are only published to exploit fans of a book series. If the content was that important then the author would include it to the actual book. I did not even read The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss, which is the norvella to one of my most favorite fantasy series. I do not know where this trend to publish novellas has come from but I do not like it. Just think how much money Joanne K. Rowling would have made if she had published novellas from the Harry Potter World now and then. But she did not.

To me, all these novellas being published taint the authors in a bad light. If they really just wanted to give the fans more stories they could publish them for free on their websites. But still, for the first time I gave in and picked up a novella. I totally blame my addiction to The Lunar Chronicles for this and the fact that we have to wait until the end of the year before Winter comes out.

Fairest did not disappoint. Meyer just knows how to write. The story reads as easily as her books. In Fairest we learn more about Queen Levana. It is a heart-wrenching story and gives insight on why she acts the way she does. For me, the most interesting thing is how differently I see her now. I am sure that when I will be reading Winter, I will compare how I see her now as opposed to how I would see her if I did not know what I do now.

All in all, I am happy that Fairest was my first novella but I am sure that I will not change my attitude towards novellas in the future. If I am really interested I might pick up a novella to a book series but in general I probably will not.

I have to admit I went into this book with high expectations. I think that is part of why I did not enjoy Unteachable as much as I could have. High expectations always ruin the reading experience because it is seldom that they can be met. The other part why I did not enjoy Unteachable more than I did was the middle part of the book but I will get to that later.

Unteachable is a contemporary New Adult book. It is the first New Adult book I have read, I think. The main character Maise is a senior in high school and falls in lust with an older guy at a fair. It turns out later that this man is the new teacher at her high school.

I liked the beginning of the book. Even though the book takes place in high school it definitely did not read like a Young Adult book. The beginning of Maise’s and Evans’ relationship was interesting. Maise certainly is not your typical main character. She knows how to use her body, comes from a bad home, and tends to be arrogant at times. She thinks she is so much more grown-up than her fellow students. To sum it up she is not the most likeable person. On the other hand she is very honest with herself and I felt for her especially with the upbringing she had.

The middle part of the book brought this rating down a lot. Unfortunately it is the biggest part of the book. Raeder decided to write sex scenes. I do not mind a well-written sex scene. I do mind, however, hundreds of pages of repetitive sex scenes. I started to skip pages. Those scenes did nothing for the storyline. I wish Raeder would have focused on the other problems and relationships in Maise’s life.

Raeder did that at the end of Unteachable and that is when the book became interesting again. The last couple of pages were fantastic but unfortunately, the middle part kind of ruined all the potential this book had.

I have not decided if I will pick up Black Iris by Leah Raeder. I think Raeder is a great writer but I am worried that her second book will also focus too much on sex for my liking.

This book is absolutely amazing. After a few pages I already knew that I was going to love this book. It is a fantasy book with a world that is creative and thought-through. The whole world building is fantastic. This book takes place in our world, in Great Britain to be exact, but the world is very different than ours. Some people have abilities that are forbidden and hunted. The main character Paige is one of them. She is a dreamwalker and can get into other people’s mind. When she gets caught and brought away from London she has to learn some unsettling information about her world and the government.

The world building is very descriptive and I can see how it might be off-putting to some. Shannon throws a lot of information at the reader. I, personally, do not mind that. I love to learn about new worlds. That is what fascinates me about the fantasy genre. To see how different the newly created world is and to find out how things work is what keeps me reading.

I also liked the characters a lot. All of them are layered. Noone is perfectly good or perfectly bad. All have good and bad character traits, all have some secrets they keep. I enjoy characters like that because there is room for character development.

Even though the book is quite big I could not stop reading it. Every free second I had I picked it up, even if I managed only five pages. I already own the second book and will continue this series soon. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys complex world-building and rather extensive information about the created political and social systems.