catsbookreviews

[catsbookreviews]

announcing the preorder campaign for my debut medieval fantasy novel, The Princess Knight

Submit your receipt here!

About The Princess Knight:

A princess desperate to win back the prince who broke her heart follows him to his kingdom’s prestigious military academy—and in doing so, falls in love, saves the realm, and continues to look fabulous, in this romantic debut fantasy. Domhnall and Clía are an ideal match—or so everyone says. They are prince and princess of neighboring kingdoms. An alliance the gods will smile on. Until Domhnall ruins everything by refusing to propose. Heartbroken but determined, Clía makes the perfect plan: Follow Domhnall to Caisleán Cósta, the military academy he’s attending. Show she can protect her kingdom. Secure the betrothal. Sure, the castle has a brutal reputation. But how hard can dueling really be? Warrior Ronan promised himself he’d never lose his focus. He fought and sacrificed for his place at Caisleán Cósta, and he has no time for blonde princesses who waltz into arenas like they’re attending a ball. Even if she and her otter-like pet are… well, cute. He doesn’t want to be intrigued by Clía. But her hunger to prove herself is something he understands. He tells himself there’s no harm training her. Even if his heart does race around her. Even if Domhnall is his best friend. But as they say, love is a battlefield—and unfortunately for them all, a very real war is looming on the horizon. It’s a fight that will threaten all their kingdoms… and test all their hearts. 

Out October 14th Preorder Now!

[catsbookreviews]

Dungeons & Drama - Kristy Boyce

I will admit that every time I read "spring musical," I pronounced it like the theater teacher in HSM.

Story: After stealing her mom's car to go see a musical, Riley is sentenced to working at her dad's game store and is not allowed to do any of her extracurriculars for 8 weeks. However, when the spring musical is at risk of being cancelled, she convinces her co-worker, Nathan, to cover her shifts in exchange for fake dating to make the girl he likes jealous.

Review: This is a very fluffy and rather cringe romcom with lots of tropes. It makes a good palette cleanser between fantasy novels. It is one of those books that makes references to real life things a lot (ex: board games, musicals, Monty Python), which personally I am not a fan of. At the beginning there feels like a bit of a forced enemies/rivals to lovers type situation, but once you get past that it improves. All in all, it's not a bad book, but nothing particularly ground breaking.

Overall: 3.25/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

The Weaver Bride - Lydia Gregovic

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with this eARC.

Story: Lovett Tamerlane, as a silkwitch, holds a rare magic. This magic legally requires her to marry a Weaver, who will be able to harness her magic, or go to the cloisters (no good, very bad times). However, that requires status that Lovett does not have, until she meets Elliot Lear. He makes a deal with her, he will enter her into a competition to marry a weaver, if she will investigate his sister's death at the same competition the year before.

Review: The Weaver Bride is a fun read. I found the magic system interesting and none of the scenes felt useless. I found myself continuously guessing trying to figure out what happened, and the plot twist caught me off guard. It wasn't perfect though, some of the dialogue was a little repetitive and the ending felt a little weird (it makes sense if this is going to be a series, but as far as I can tell it isn't)

Overall: 4/5 ⭐️

⚠️ Trigger Warnings for attempted SA

[catsbookreviews]

Wings of Starlight - Allison Saft

This may be the fastest I've ever read a book after the release.

Story: Clarion, princess of Pixie Hollow, is set to have her coronation in about a month. However, she has been failing her duties. She cares too much, she cannot control her powers, and she can't help but want to go to Winter. So, when a beast from Winter attacks the warm seasons, she takes a chance to go and investigates, meeting the charming Milori.

Review: I personally really enjoyed this story and had many a feeling at the end. The romance between Clarion and Milori was sweet and I was a fairly large fan of the Tinkerbell movies growing up, so I really enjoyed the world building and backstory that this book gives.

Overall: 4.5/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

Circe - Madeline Miller

l'll be honest, this has been sitting in my drafts for almost a year, apparently.

Story: This is a retelling of the Odyssey from the perspective of Circe, a sorceress and daughter of the titan Helios, who was banished to an island. Removed from the comforts of Olympus, she has to learn to fend for herself while coming across monsters and men.

Review: I remember enjoying this book, but I don't actually remember it other than knowing that the people in this book need to stop doing things with cows. Back away from the farm animals, gosh darn it.

Overall: 3.5/5 ⭐️

⚠️ Trigger warnings for SA.

[catsbookreviews]

Perfect Girl - Tracy Banghart

Stepping outside of my normal genres and reading a thriller.

Story: Jessa is a perfect, polite, people pleaser; never breaks the rules or rocks the boat. She has her whole life planned perfectly. However when a storm knocks out the power at her house she begins to doubt her perfect politeness.

Review: As previously stated, this isn’t my normal genre to read, but I really enjoyed it. I was kept on the edge of my seat, even if some of the twists were somewhat predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for providing me with an eARC of this book!

Overall: 4.5/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

btw the thing she couldn’t ignore was someone calling her out for saying anti-depressants/hormone therapy are only perscribed by lazy doctors

[catsbookreviews]

Belladonna - Adalyn Grace

Is it okay for a immortal being to romance someone that he knew as a child?

Story: Her entire life Signa has been followed by Death, being shuffled from guardian to guardian. When she moves in with her last remaining relatives, she is forced to team up with the very being that has taken everyone from her.

Review: I really did enjoy this book, I was caught off guard with all of the plot twists. Also even with Signa’s supernatural abilities she didn’t seem super “I’m not like other girls”. Quite the opposite really, she really wants to be like the other girls and fit in. My main qualm was that I’m not entirely convinced that Death isn’t a pedophile. So take that as you will.

Overall: 4.25/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

Daughter of Fire - Sofia Robleda

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Crossing for providing me with an early access copy of this book!

Synopsis: Daughter of Fire follows a half-Guatemalan half-Spanish girl named Catalina. She is being raised by her father, a member of the Spanish ruling class in Guatemala that is erasing the native culture. This, however, does not stop Catalina from following her late mother’s wishes for her to learn and protect her people’s history and language. However when the ancient text of their people is destroyed, she has to work with Juan de Rojas, a Guatemalan lord who lost his power in the inquisition that Catalina does not trust, to rewrite it.

Review: I rather enjoyed this book, I don’t read a lot of historical fiction so it was a bit out of my normal but from where I am standing it was a good book. It had a slow enemies/rivals/I-just-don’t-trust-you to lovers which is trope that I’ll admit I rather enjoy. I will say it is a dense book so it took me some time to get through.

Overall: 4/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

Sixteen Souls - Rosie Talbot

I definitely didn't just accidentally delete this and now I'm doing it again, nope

Story: Charlie died. But for who knows what reason he came back, now able to see the dead. He likes to mind his own business, thank. He has enough going on in his life without taking on other's problems. But when ghosts start disappearing, a new seer, Sam, confronts Charlie in an attempt to convince him to help track them down. Charlie refuses, until one of his ghost friends disappears too.

Review: I really enjoyed this book, Charlie and Sam were really cute and the "science" behind ghosts was really interesting. My only qualm with this book was that the villain was fairly obvious from the moment he was introduced, or maybe I'm just not like other readers *hair tuck* I don't know, you guys should just read it and tell me (I swear I'm not normally this insufferable)

Overall: 4.5/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

The Broken Half (Verse #1) - Sam Beck

Did I think that a bunch of characters were different genders than they actually were? Yes. Yes I did.

Story: this dude is going to a city to train to be a blacksmith or something, and on the way this amulet breaks and out pops this girl with horns who can do magic.

Review: I got very lost as to what was happening, but the art was really really pretty so... I kinda started figuring it out towards the end.

Overall: 3.5/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

Prince of Song & Sea - Linsey Miller

Even more Disney! Yay! (I think this should be the last one for a bit)

Story: A secondary plot to The Little Mermaid, that is technically canon compliant, but completely changes the way things are viewed. Essentially, Prince Eric is cursed so that if he kisses anyone but his true love, he will die.

Review: As I said, the story given in this book very much changes how things are viewed in the movie, not sure if that's a good thing or not. It's also interesting seeing this take on Prince Eric and giving him a life outside of what we saw in the movie.

Overall: 4/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen - Shea Ernshaw

More Disney! Yay!

Story: While she loves Jack, Sally Skellington does not love her new role as queen. In her attempt to escape the pressure, she finds a new grove of doors, beyond the holidays. However upon opening one, she unleashes something that may have doomed her future.

Review: I really liked this book, there were some parts that were a bit dull and repetitive (ex: traveling to every holiday world and finding the same thing), but it did lead to learning more about the universe so... It also took some turns that I wasn't expecting at all.

Overall: 4.5/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

Evil Thing - Serena Valentino

Don't judge me for liking Disney books, please.

Story: This book gives the backstory of Cruella De Vil, which is actually kinda really sad. But nowhere does it truly excuse her actions.

Review: I enjoyed this book, as with the rest of the series. It not the best one, but it was certainly good. I feel like the author did a good job making the reader feel bad for Cruella without excusing her at all. Though she did also portray her as a tad bit of an idiot.

Overall: 4/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

Alex & Eliza - Melissa De La Cruz

Finally got around to reading it after seeing it over and over again.

Story: Based off the story of Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler, and a bit more accurate than Hamilton (the musical). It still was very much like Hamilton but with more enemies to lovers.

Review: Personally, I didn't love it; historical fiction isn't really my cup of tea most of the time. That isn't to say that it was bad though, it was a fine book. I did enjoy parts of it for sure.

⚠️ CHECK TRIGGER/CONTENT WARNINGS BEFORE READING ⚠️

Overall: 3.5/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

Alex, Approximately - Jenn Bennett

The "plot twist" is literally in the blurb. Talk about a spoiler alert.

Story: This girl, Bailey, moves to this town in California, which just so happens to be where her online pen-pal/crush lives. But she also starts falling for this guy that drives her crazy, in a shocking turn of events that is definitely not stated on the back of the book, he is actually her online crush.

Review: Anyways, this book really bugged me because the main plot point wasn't revealed until the end of the book. It was also just okay anyways.

Overall 3/5 ⭐️

[catsbookreviews]

Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Reread for my English class

Story: This dude, Nick, moves in next to this mysterious guy who throws parties every night (or something like that) and he gets to know him and his life.

Review: Honestly I don't love this book, maybe I just missed the point but it just didn't really live up to expectations. But hey I tried. Also I hate Tom a lot and he should go die.

Overall: 3.5/5 ⭐️