"Goodnight, Dax McGuire," I call to him. "Goodnight, Gemma McGuire," he calls back. "Slip of the tongue?" He shrugs and smiles. "Something like that."
Gem"Goodnight, Dax McGuire," I call to him. "Goodnight, Gemma McGuire," he calls back. "Slip of the tongue?" He shrugs and smiles. "Something like that."
Gemma's break up that she never thought would come crushes her heart. The whole idea of having a dog, a nice little house and maybe even a baby, thrown out of the window: goodbye. To forget about everything, she uses a spell to make her love life more bearable, a fresh start. And it does happen to be a fresh start because she's woken up in another time-line where her best friend Dax doesn't know who she is and she needs him to undo the spell with a kiss within a month. And when suddenly the line between friends and lovers start to blur as she gets another chance to redo the introduction and become closer to him, she's left with the longing question she never thought she would ask herself: is falling in love with your best friend the right path, only to know her heart will be broken in the end?
Honestly, this was such a cute read. The whole setting, and the realistic side of life was shown so clearly with Gemma, her life just gone upside-down and her self growth throughout this whole book shines through. And slowly realising that her and Dax were never truly meant to just stay friends. I liked the idea of the spell and her having to go through the whole process again to befriend Dax but he's a little different than her original Dax.
Gemma really is a relatable character and I loved knowing her inside thoughts, her inner battles with herself whenever she thought her interactions with Dax were getting a little more than friends. And this book just clearly shows she'll fall in love with any different versions of Dax, even if he's in another time-line (just makes the whole "i'll love you in any universe" thing clear and adorable).
I do think that Gemma and Dax in her original time-line is much better off together, maybe because their life is more better and happier but truly, if Gemma didn't date her ex then both of them wouldn't have had a good life-style and end up together in the end. Also the self-growth in this book is so strong, as she learns to make her own decisions instead of relying on others to clarify her decisions are right.
Overall, such a cute and cozy read to get out of a reading slump...more
*I received an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours*
This book is quite short, since it’s 250 pages long. *I received an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours*
This book is quite short, since it’s 250 pages long. I usually read 400+ pages book(s) but ‘A Crown of Echoes’ didn’t feel that shorter than I expected it to be. Hey, at least it started off very nicely, meeting Queen Merrin with her opening lines: “This story would be better if it were told by Beau. Beautiful, regal, freckled Beau. But alas, captive ones, you’ll be getting the oversharing, less eloquent Merrin version of this story.”
This story is written in a unique style that I haven’t read from any other books. It was like even though we are reading the story, Merrin was actually ‘saying‘ her own fairy tale. The paragraphs/sentences where Merrin was talking as if she already knew what was going to happen were quite interesting.
We definitely know the two queens personalities from their first impressions in this book. When I meet new characters, I need some time to get to know them and decide if they are going to be loved by me. But I knew I would love Merrin❤️ Queen Beau is quite the elegant and beautiful queen we could imagine her as well but Merrin was different. She had a wild heart (along with her hair) and I just fell in love with her story.
Windley’s snippy and secretive personality made me love him a lot. He is such a badass and radiates ‘bad boy’ off him. And what’s there not to love about him? He is always there for Merrin and the sizzling friendship + romance is always there! I am not a fan of friends-to-lovers trope but that has been change when I was reading about Windley’s little affection towards Merrin. She was oblivious to them (I was shouting at the book to make Merrin notice more of Windley) but it was always there. Merrin thinking of Windley a bit, Windley (somehow) making Merrin happy and being supportive. Those two characters made me laugh and cry a lot (;
Other characters, Albie and Rafa just felt like they were there in the scenes, but didn’t catch my interest a lot. Sure, Albie is like a father to Merrin and Rafa is a secretive guard but they weren’t just outshinning to me.
There are so many secrets, twists, emotions and the plots get bigger and bigger as we read through. There are so many secrets (and the ending, oh my) here and there along with some ‘unusual’ magical abilities from the characters....more
--------- Let's just say I didn't hesitate to read this when I first got it on my kindle. Even though I'm a fast reader, I read tJust damn amazing.
RTC
--------- Let's just say I didn't hesitate to read this when I first got it on my kindle. Even though I'm a fast reader, I read this book in about a day and just... wow. I seriously fell in love with the characters and the setting of the sci-fi/fantasy world the author has picked out. The places and the character names are all unique and quite unheard of. But this book had it's own taste and was original.
I was hooked in the moment when I was introduced into the world the author created. I wasn't really sure which genre she was more going for in the setting of the world: fantasy or sci-fi? I guess it was kind of squished together but somehow, that made it more interesting to read. But I would definitely say that the characters she describes are more into the category 'sci-fi'. They are no faeries or goblins, more like green-skinned creatures with different types of species.
Sambor, the great dark hero was quite an addictive character to start with. He's quite serious when he's doing his job, but I always knew he had a sweet side...
And Orobella, a wanderer who borrows past (dead) bodies and quite carefree in her life. She filled with so much JOY crystals that I sometimes wonder if she has any worries!
Incandescence was filled with so much fantasy, romance, sci-fi and some dark surprises throughout the book and it was a unpredictable of where the book was going to end in but that made me want to find out more ...more
She asked the Universe to show her happiness. So it did, but the problem is, she doesn’t know how to get the happiness she asked for.
Maelyn has a wishShe asked the Universe to show her happiness. So it did, but the problem is, she doesn’t know how to get the happiness she asked for.
Maelyn has a wish. She wants to be happy. To catch her own happiness when she doesn’t feel right in the world she’s living in.
She doesn’t like the job she has, or about her parents divorce. And she really doesn’t like how her love life is tangled. The only thing that can truly make her smile is spending time in the cabin when it’s her Christmas holiday, along with her other loved families in Utah. She’s always spent her winter time in that cabin, feeling all of the childhood she had.
But when she’s in a car accident, she is seriously confused when she’s on an airplane, back to Utah. But the thing is, she’s already been to Utah and the last thing she remembers is riding a car to go to the airport with her family then going home. But instead, she’s in her holiday all over again.
So when she sees that the Universe is trying to show her happiness by being in the holidays she had all over again, she’s determined to do it right. And maybe even get her true love under the mistletoe.
To be honest, I didn’t get the 10% of this book because it didn’t really make sense, but when I kept reading, I was like, SO INTO IT. I think the most confusing thing was that Maelyn was time-travelling and going back over and over to when she was on the plane. I didn’t quite understand why her family was acting around her like she’s just grown another eye on her forehead, that they were NOT in a car accident and that it’s Christmas time.
But when I finished the book, I was thinking that it made PERFECT SENSE since the whole story line I was missing clicked into place. It was like, my head just lighted up a light-ball and I was just in awe that Christina Lauren thought of this amazing story. It was heartwarming, cute and definitely romantic. And I was laughing my head off at conversations between characters because oh boy, this author has a talent to write a rom-com.
And just after finishing this book, I felt that ‘In a Holidaze’ showed happiness will be earned but there still will be mistakes that wouldn’t be rubbed off. Because everyone deserves some happy things in their life.
This was such a great book, and thank you so much to Gallery Books and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed it so much and I am very grateful that I read it....more
Let's just say I'm a lucky girl to get a hold of this book and read it.
So finally, my gorgeous Cardan gets his own story and has all my attentions. AnLet's just say I'm a lucky girl to get a hold of this book and read it.
So finally, my gorgeous Cardan gets his own story and has all my attentions. And (unsurprisingly), my heart has melted. His past seems to be all twisted up and cruel which just made me NEED more of him!!
"You really are terrible, you know that? I don't even understand why the things you say make me smile."
As per usual, the fantasy is epic. It's so beautifully described and all the new creatures I was reading were also vivid (with added bonus of some illustrations here and there) that I somehow imagined the characters more clearly. And talking about those illustrations, I so recommend you to read this book in a physical copy!! I doubt reading in a digital one will make the illustrations beautiful. Some drawings of Cardan and Jude were similar to the fanarts I saw on the internet. Cardan, with his deadly black eyes and raven-dark hair. Jude with her two twisted up horns (her hair) and always seems to be wild.
In 'How the King of Elfhame learned to Hate Stories', we also get to see what happens next to Cardan after 'The Queen of Nothing'. Let me just tell you, that Cardan gets to try bubble teas and dumplings, wearing t-shirts&jeans&jacket. So 'mortal' looking. Although (a tiny spoiler) he wouldn't take off his golden rings.
I fell in love with reading about Cardan's dark past because when I first read the folk of the air trilogy, I didn't know about his childhood. And now Holly Black has introduced his old times, I can finally see how things worked out.
And so you can see, I JUST TOTALLY LOVED IT!!!
"There is one thing I did like about playing hero. The only good bit. And that was not having to be terrified for you."...more
