Love, Like, and Not For Me Challenge: January 2023

This year I’m working to be more personal and honest in my opinions about the books I read. I’ve spent my entire time reviewing books here trying my hardest to balance the good and the bad and offer a similarly balanced rating no matter my personal feelings about the book. Last year I finally decided I was done just giving 4 cups of tea to books I personally would have give 3 or even 2 cups to, so I decided, while I do like staying balanced in my reviews, I needed a way to indicate my personal preferences. So, here we are. I’ll be dividing each book I read into Love, Like, and Not for Me categories, and really can’t wait to see the outcome. So, how did January look?

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Love

Bookworm by Robin Yeatman wasn’t actually a terrific book and the characters grated on my nerves more than I would have liked, and I really hate cheating stories. But I loved the ending and how it tickled me to think about everything Victoria had done that led up to that moment, and then I couldn’t stop thinking of what she might do in the future. Despite everything I wasn’t a fan of in this book, I can’t deny that the writing kept me engaged and I couldn’t stop watching the train wreck that is Victoria. Or is it? I just had a lot of fun reading this, though it wasn’t without some crazy faults.

The Faithless by C.L. Clark is the second in the Magic of the Lost trilogy. It’s set about a year after the events of the first book, The Unbroken. I’ll be honest and say I liked the first book, but I hated that Touraine felt like she was jerked around by the story. Still, I was determined to read this trilogy. If you had asked me what I thought during the first half of The Faithless, I would have said this was okay. Neither Touraine nor Luca felt very big, always seemingly shrinking and letting people stomp on them. But, at some point in the second half, things just changed and it became so easy to see how their characterizations were building up to it. They were amazing and glorious and I fell in love with this series like so many people did with the first book.

Like

The Shadow Of Perseus by Claire Heywood should be right up my alley because I adore Greek mythology. It focuses on three women in the story of Perseus: his mother Danae, the Gorgon Medusa, and his bride Andromeda. Except it has a spin to it where the gods’ interventions were explained by potential historical details, neatly doing away with the gods. I really liked this possible version of events, and I liked Danae and Andromeda’s relationship. Andromeda in particular was an amazing woman. But I hated the feeling that the way these women treated Perseus kind of led to him being a terrible man. I did not care for his characterization and the possible insinuation it was because his mother spoiled him, Medusa refused to love him, and Andromeda stroked his ego a little too much just to save her own skin. While this could have been a Love book, it’s, unfortunately, one that I just ended up Liking.

Not For Me

Vampire Weekend by Mike Chen was a big disappointment on many fronts. I was really looking forward to this since Chen hadn’t disappointed me yet and even proved he could write books about superheros and aliens and I would love it. See, I despise vampire books with a passion. I don’t really know why, but I have never been a fan of them. But it’s Mike Chen, so it’s going to be good! I was so wrong. I did not enjoy this vampire book. Maybe further proof that vampires are just not for me? The vampire part was just a little too big and the heart I expected felt almost non-existent, so this one was just not for me. I am, though, looking forward to what he has up his sleeve for next year because I still really do like his writing and previous books.

The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges just sounded so lovely and magical with a sweet love story wrapped in it. Indeed, parts of it were quite lovely and the characters around Myra were wonderful, if a bit flawed. But I hated that I spent the entire book trying to figure out how, exactly, the little and big mansions were actually tied together and how the Lady managed to live on and on and on. I just had so many questions that it was difficult for me to enjoy the actual story on the pages. Not to mention the love story, while agonizingly sweet, just felt so dragged out and then suddenly it took off like a shot. There was just some unevenness I couldn’t get past, so failed to actually enjoy this one.

In Progress

Play the Fool by Lina Chern is the book I’m ending the month with. I’m about 60% of the way in and finally really enjoying this murder mystery with tarot mixed in. It feels like a fairly standard murder mystery, but it’s keeping my attention because the narrator, Katie, has a really fun sense of humor and her brother Owen is even weirder, but detective Jamie seems oddly charmed by them. I don’t really get the tarot in this book. I mean, Katie practically lives and breathes the cards, but it just feels like an almost tacky add on, so I’m hoping it plays a really big role later on. It kind of did recently, but it just really felt like Katie was almost grasping at straws and I’d really like a reading that truly feels a little mystical.

Thanks for reading!

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