Review: Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza

Quick review for a somewhat quick read (at least as far as audiobooks are concerned). I honestly enjoyed “Empress of a Thousand Skies”, though it took me a while to really get started with it. The challenge for this story lies in the fact that it has multiple narrators, has a very extensive set of worldbuilding rules and jargon that may be difficult to adjust to at first, and follows different storylines that eventually converge and reveal themselves in terms of the link between characters. It also starts very sluggish with pacing and development, which to me was probably the narrative’s biggest achilles heel through the beginning of the story. However, once I found the flow with the story, I honestly couldn’t put the book down and I loved the experience. I honestly can’t wait to see where this series ultimately goes, considering the stakes established and the character relationships.

Review: Echoes of Us (The Hybrid Chronicles #3) by Kat Zhang

Initial reaction: That was a satisfying end to a good series overall. A few points for me had the narrative dragging but I enjoyed the journey overall.

Full review:

I’ll admit I’m a little sad to be finishing this series with “Echoes of Us” for two reasons: 1. It took me a long time to pick up this final novel and 2. This is pretty much the end of the journey for Eva and Addie. I’ve spent three books following these characters and found myself invested in their fight for representation and non-erasure of hybrid souls. This book has Addie and Eva delving into an alternate identity once again by going undercover at a facility with hybrid children like themselves to expose the horrible treatment of the souls there, but it comes with a high cost.

Review: The First Wife by Erica Spindler

Quick review for a rather quick read. Well, I definitely didn’t see the end of this book coming. It’s a multi-level mystery that takes its time working through the motions. The story revolves around Bailey, a woman who falls madly in love with a man with a suspicious past. Logan’s family is a complicated one, and as Bailey follows him to Louisiana, she finds that he keeps secret after secret from her about his family, particularly involving the disappearance of his first wife, True. When Bailey suffers from an incident that leaves her with retrograde amnesia, she struggles to know who to trust and tries to put the pieces of her fragmented memory together in order to discover the culprit, but *he* or *she* might be closer to Bailey than she can guess.

Review: Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Initial reaction: I really enjoyed this story by Sarah Dessen (and ended up buying it on a spontaneous trip to Barnes and Noble). The key metaphor throughout the book really resonated with me and I enjoyed reading the narrative through Ruby’s voice. Though I’d probably give this book 3.5 stars overall because there were certain emotional moments that I think would’ve hit home more if they’d been given more room to be showcased.

Full review:

Sarah Dessen does such a great job getting into the lives of her characters, it’s hard not to be drawn into their experiences regardless of the myriad of circumstances they might find themselves within. “Lock and Key” proves no exception to that, though I’ll admit I kept feeling even as I finished the novel that I wanted to sink my teeth into the conflict and lives of the characters just a little bit more. But only a little, because it still held my attention and interest through the entire story.

Review: Shadowshaper (Shadowshaper #1) by Daniel Jose Older

Initial reaction: One of my favorite reads this year so far. I loved this book so much. The MC had a strong voice and the overarching storyline was imaginative and exciting. I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel.

Full review:

I’ll admit I saw this book on the shelf at my library and was completely taken by cover lust. If you also want a different experience than reading the physical book, the audio version is wonderfully read by Anika Noni Rose (I ended up purchasing this from Audible because I loved the book so much.)