In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
Let’s be clear—none of these characters are likable. They are all selfish, entitled, horrible people. With that being said, the mystery is intriguing and the puzzle pieces are satisfying to put together. Each person legitimately has a motive and it was more than halfway through that I felt I had a good handle on who did it and why. So if you’re looking for a murder mystery, this is a pretty good one. But if you’re looking for a book with enjoyable characters, look elsewhere. 3.5/5
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
This book is wordy. Very wordy. I’d say probably 75% of the book is El’s inner dialogue. At least. There were times I had to reread sentences because they didn’t quite make sense the first time I read them. With all that being said, I still really enjoyed this book. I happen to like El’s voice as a character and so reading 300+ pages of her snark was fun for me (though I can understand why others might be less enthused).
The stakes are higher in this book as El is actively trying to prepare herself and her alliance for graduation. Things are made much harder when it seems like the Scholomance is specifically out to get El. The action in this book was pretty straightforward and I thought the logic of the students as they got their plans together made a lot of sense. I also really liked that we expanded our cast of characters with this book. But with more characters and the amount of time we spend in El’s head, we don’t really get to learn much more about preexisting characters like Liu, Aadhya, and Chloe which would have been nice.
Overall, I can see how this series won’t be for everyone, but I love it. Can’t wait for the next one! 4/5
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Typically for mysteries, I like to be able to fit the puzzle pieces together myself and form my own conclusions. You can’t do that with this book, unfortunately, too much happens off screen. Despite that, I still really enjoyed this book. I thought the audio was just delightful. The narrator is very good and it reminded me a bit of the audio for the Flavia de Luce series which I’ve also enjoyed. I loved our cast of elderly characters and I thought that Donna and Chris rounded out the ensemble really well. The scene where the Thursday Murder Club all sit down with Chris and Donna for the first time had me laughing out loud multiple times. Overall, a fun little murder mystery and I’ll definitely be continuing the series! 4/5
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
I don’t know that I really understand what I just read…but I liked it? There was something about it that I found to be really calming even though some of the events were not. Piranesi is an endearingly innocent character. I thought the length of this book was perfect—a lesser author would have stretched it out for another 150 pages. 4/5
To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters
Wow. Okay, so these two main characters are absolutely infuriating. Multiple times throughout this book they come to some sort of resolution, but then by the next page they’re fighting again. And it’s basically always over some misunderstanding where if they would just COMMUNICATE everyone could get on the same page. But I guess then we wouldn’t have a book. This book is fine. It’s nothing special in this realm of regency romances. Will I continue the series? Maybe. I’ll say this though, poor Wooton doesn’t deserve to be treated like this and needs his own book. 3/5
To Love and to Loathe by Martha Waters
Just fine. Once again, the main characters were kind of infuriating and I felt like the resolution happened really quickly (like all within the last 20 pages). 3/5
The Maid by Nita Prose
I felt so mad while reading this book at basically every single character. The way Molly was being treated was disgusting. With that being said, that fact made the book’s conclusion especially satisfying. I loved Molly as a character. She felt really refreshing. The mystery was also a fun one to try to solve. Who exactly is involved and who knows what information? Overall, I’d definitely recommend this book, but prepare for it to make you a little mad. 4/5
The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle
Yeah…just not my favorite. Authors sometimes like to do this thing where they want their main character to be like “I don’t even know why this guy likes me? He’s so special and I’m so normal (or below-average) and it makes no sense!” Sometimes the reader can see what the main character can’t and the romance makes sense. But then other times the author has done too good of a job and the reader also can’t tell why the love interest is attracted to her. That was the case with this book. We are given no real reason for their relationship other than vicinity and that made it hard to get invested in the whole book. 2/5
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