Tag: reading

Young World by Soman Chainani

Age Rating – honestly i’m struggling because I dont think you should spend time reading this at any age, but it depends on you honestly. Its pretty low in violence, but very very high in people being horny even if there isnt much on the page (see details in the review) so I’m going to say 14+B and the B is for the constant focus on sex. If it wasnt for the weirdness around that I would give it a 13+ to be honest, maybe even a 12+B but with it I cant rate it any lower.

I honestly wanted to love this book so much, but I really didnt. I finished it because its Soman Chainani, and School for Good and Evil is a reread several times over series for me, but this wasnt just a new style of writing, it just wasnt good.

  • Benton
    Dear god, what a main character Benton was and I dont say that as a good thing. He is so unlikeable, incel energy right from the beginning, and when we discover who his crush is it gets worse (and illegal.)I can pity him for being manipulated and also hate him for his lack of capability or character at the same time. His only real character traits were oscalating between I-dont-give-a-damn, i’m no fucks benny boy and just plain horny. I mean he was horny all the time, even after almost dying and the danger not over. Just horny. (I felt like all the characters were, so its not just Benton but it was annoying in a main character that his main motivation was just to be able to get That Girl. Also, I get why for plot reasons she didnt get a name until a good 200 pages in, but I dont like it. It just amplified his incel weirdness because he wasnt calling her by her name. And the plot itself was really unneeded and odd and unresolved, if you’ve read it you know. Benton’s character is summed up in his first entry where he says “the only thing that matters to me is a girl. A girl i know is The One. A girl who acts like she doesnt give a shit about me when we both know she likes me back” – um, do we? Do we really? Are we still writing teenage boys that dont take no for a definitive answer in 2026? the That Girl plot that develops is concerning in its own right, but i’m not going to get into that now.
  • The Other Leaders
    I kept reading because I was sure that Amita and the other political leaders, who seemed at least in the beginning when we were still in the US, to have a better grasp on things and actually want to be in power, and know what to do with it. However, as soon as we get to the G-8, we meet them all. Most of them can be summed up as hot and horny except Steffi (poor Steffi) who is just nerdy and the only one with an inch of emotional stability. They were all just horny and beyond that they were stereotypes that just felt really empty. Justice for Rafaella, and justice for Mori, and justice for Elliot who could have been interesting but barely gets any time. I feel like if Soman Chainani had fleshed out all the characters by them starting with the murder earlier than almost page 300 then we could have had a really interesting all toxic politically wildcard leader cast but they just didnt feel like they got more character after Bentons quick scribbled notes about them.
  • Benton’s Friends
    Was Freddy the only one with some political savvy? Yes. Did he earn my black mark on page 209 when he says “from the looks of her she wont take well to that” when talking about Steffi, Germany’s leader, not liking the potential reveal that Swede and Britain are in bed both politically and physically. And says “she has short hair” and “so she’ll be suspicious of the hot girl is all I’m saying”. Absolutely. I’m with Jax on this one, with his “oh my god” but poor Jax is just a walking steryotype of a hot gay boy, they call him a “turbo twink” in the actual book, and the whole emotional point of him saying he goes after straight guys because they remind him of his friends and he just wants to be with his friends was really random and like what? The least hatable out of the three main boys and the only one I think could have been interesting if he’d got more page time.
    ALSO
  • why as soon as we were in india did Benton start comparing all the minor unnamed characters skin colours to each other and saying if they were darker or lighter skinned when it had no plot relevence? If the author was trying to make a point about racism still being prelevent in the way lighter skinned shop girls are chosen to be at the front, then that could have been made clearer, not a random disjointed sentence stuck in there.
  • I also have issues with the politics. It was marketed as the young people can take over politics and make a difference, but it just read as young people are horny idiots, especially teenaged boys which I have to say that Benton for 100% is and I wouldnt trust him to babysit a cat and they can feed and water themselves. However, it didnt feel like an empowering radical shift of the world like it was supposed to be, and after the politics in the beginning, I expected the big colonial reshaping of the world (iykyk) to be mentioned more than eh thats just your problem.

I’m going to talk about the big difference between this book and others, which is the 150 pieces of Nuke Orange coloured art in the book, and how it was almost written in a social media slash diary entry way. I thought it was really interesting, and it could let you predict what was going to happen happen in the chapter ahead which was satisfying for me (I predicted the Teen Swede claim) and also showed polls and social media memes (which was jarring to see in a book, i’ll say). That was interesting. I think that Young World really did achieve something in its format, which really blends social media into a book format, and has some interesting political ideas but it just didnt hit for me. Also, its not a thriller. Its political, but its not a thriller. I’m not sure what genre it is but its not thrilling.

Characters – 0/5 – I hated them all and not in a good way. Sometimes the characters who are toxic are interesting, but all these characters were was horny and that got old fast when it was just pages after pages after pages of that being their only characteristic other than a short stereotype.

World – 2.5/5 – it had so much promise, and yet I just struggled with it because the blend of reality and not was clunky. Its almost exactly the political system in America, but apparently Trump was president but only for one term? I’m presuming so because there is another election, but all the rest of the names are actual presidents and then we just have a whole made up Democrat and Republican leaders who felt like a copy paste name job from their real counterparts.

Plot – 0.5/5 – fundamentally flawed in so many places, I think that the marketing was also to blame because it said it was a political thriller, and it was political but more adventure story than thriller. How Benton got in I can suspend disbelief, I’m good at that I read mostly fantasy and I’m not one to see plotholes unless its a plot chasm and there isnt anything to cover it up.

Romance is -100000000000/5 because no. No no no no no.

Romance Rating: I have no clue what romantic rating this is, the kissing isnt descriptive at all, like one short short sentence a few times, but god are they horny and is sex talked about a lot and people wanting to have sex. There is one scene where we almost see through a video two guys (teenaged guys as well, whom i’m really hoping werent minors) have sex but it cuts of. It has very little plot relevance and raised all my theoretical eyebrows.
Violence Rating: Level 3
Content Warnings: polar bear attack, illegal adult/minor relationship (on page, never seen as bad and a pretty big thing that is left unresolved).

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What We Did To Survive by Megan Lally

This was a fast paced survival story which I really enjoyed! I was expecting a little bit more of a thriller, but that only comes in at the end, most of this story is a fiercely waged war for survival during a storm and the growing mystery of why they were out in the storm. 

I loved that Emmy showed flashes of intelligence despite the main characters annoyance with her best friends boyfriend obsession because too often it becomes the bff’s stupidity that drives the plot entirely and while it is partly that it also shows that Emmy isn’t just the vapid girl she appears to be in the beginning. 

Megan is hands down one of my favourite main characters in a thriller/mystery/survival story I’ve read this year, she is so realistic and I was 100% onboard with her and her decisions throughout the whole book! I will say that the end totally shocked me tho, i was not expecting that!

World – 4/5 – it’s vivid and i was 100% in it all the time. Thrillers dont focus on the world but it did everything it needed to do.

Plot – 5/5 – THE PLOT REVEALS!

Characters – 4.5/5 – i liked or hated them in turn, and enjoyed Megan as a main character.

Romance – 3.5/5 – for me this was the least stand out part of this book, it’s not a romance driven plot but it does matter to the characters emotional reactions and complexities in the plot.

Romance Rating: Soft – kissing, little to no detail. 

Violence Rating: Level 4. 

Content Warnings: sea storm, lost at sea, survival, deaths of multiple characters. 

3

Assistant to the Villain

Perfection. This is funny but also deep, this is complex but always understandable and fast paced, this is the dragons golden egg of fantasy and i adored it! 

To begin with we have this really interesting set up where Evie is the assistant to the villain and the villain is essentially a corporation except his company goals are less revenue and more heads dangling from the ceiling in the foyer. It’s such a breath of fresh air to read a fantasy book that doesn’t center around being a hero, Evie is a willing assaceory to a villain but she is doing it because she needs the money which is such a good villain arc motivator. The question isnt asked directly in the book but i really do think that some amazing analysis could be done of this book connecting with the real world and the realties of supporting evil for money if you work in a big corporation despite doing it for good reasons. I really love how this book isnt just a boss/assistant romance set in a shifty fantasy steryotypical world this is thought through and actually works on a deeper level than just you know that the steryotypical pseudo European fantasy world looks like despite having relatively few settings outside the Villains office. 

Evie herself is a ray of sunshine and i loved her. In a world of kick ass FMCs who sass back constantly and have the maturity of a unripe tomato she was so nice to read about because she was sensible and funny and interesting as a character beyond the plot. All of the characters (Kingsley included you little adorable frog prince!) were so interesting and easy to grasp i feel like i could fall right into their world. 

The romance had me giggling and it was just so so good that I already have the second book that i cant wait to get started on!

World – 4.5/5 – this is not the heavy duty epic fantasy worldbuilding but i loved the world and atmosphere so much I cannot dock points because this is a five star read and I don’t always need to be able to write a disatation on economics of a fantasy world after reading it!

Characters – 5/5 – yes, yes yes! Even the office rulemaker has depth and i loved it. 

Romance – 5/5 – trystan has joined the list of February’s literary valentines and he works so well with Evie their combo is *chefs kiss*

Plot – 5/5 – that cliff hanger? I’m sorry but when did i sign up to have the next week exclusively blocked off for aprentice and acomplicing a villain??

Romance Rating: Sweet – described kissing, make out scenes but goes no further than kissing on or off page.

Violence Rating: Level 4 

Content Warnings: Evie does have a past of sexual harassment at work

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The Queens Resistance by Rebecca Ross

It’s so interesting to see the devolopment of Rebecca Ross’s writing style, i can see traces of the lyrical fantastical worldbuilding in this book that is similar to Divine Rivals, but it is still written in a much more modern YA style that is common in fantasy. One of my favourite things about Divine Rivals was that it was written like it was written in the 1940s with the language and vibes despite being a fantasy war novel. 

On its own it stands up as a fantasy novel but it doesnt have the spark of complete uniqueness that Divine Rivals did and i felt like I had read this story many times before in different fonts. I did enjoy the dual countries and the history behind that, this was one of the really strong points of this book that the worldbuilding was so strong but i felt like when we left the passion house we lost that timeless wonder and went into a very typical fantasy coming of age plot. 

Over all it was a fun read and I really enjoyed the girls interactions with each other – it does pass the Bechdel test! – which was a highlight of this series for me because female friendship is something that often is not represented in fantasy ya because the focus is on the love interest or the war or their own power rather than friendship. 

World – 4/5 – most solid part of this book and i enjoyed that the main character was a historian, it made her knowledge of politics realistic and interesting, she knew what the political landscape she was stepping into was which i appreciated .

Plot – 3/5 – it was very predictable, and followed all the genre conventions but it did work and at no point did it annoy me. 

Romance – 1/5 – this did annoy me. This isnt a spoiler because we get this from the very first chapters but she is in love with her teacher. This is a student/teacher romance subplot which was so icky and i really didnt enjoy. He felt odd and shifty to me and i felt like the main character liked his intelligence and dedication as a teacher and that got mixed up in romantic feelings. I just. I hate age gap, i hate teacher x student and i really dont like it when the romance feels unneeded so this wasnt it for me I’m sorry. 

Characters – 3/5 – none of the characters were groundbreaking, i felt a loose attachment to the main character and had an active hatred of one of the girls whom essentially had the mc self-sabotage an important conversation because she wanted to be favoured. I did understand that girl though and honestly her book would be really interesting, considering the different perspective between the main character who thinks they are awful at their subject and the girl who is watching them take their opportunities and be favoured over her. 

Romance Rating: Soft – just kisses no description

Violence Rating: Level 3 – standard fantasy violence, a battle at the end, check out my blog post on Violence Ratings that is pinned for more specifics!

Content Warnings: student/teacher relationship, suggestion of possible rape to the mc’s mother, death of mother. 

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Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik

This is a short story collection that includes some stories from the Scholomance and the Temenarie series. While you dont have to have read the Temenarie series to read its short stories (no spoilers there) the scolomance shorties do essentially spoil the huge ending of book two and the ending of book three (which I haven’t read yet but could have guessed). Either way, it’s full of so many stories that even if you skip the scolomance ones then you’ll still have a lot of Naomi Novik to luxuriate in.

Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This one was first and honestly not my favourite of the collection. It’s a fun short story set in the regency period with a female main lead who has a talisman that helps her survive when her ship is attacked by pirates because it turns her into a man. I enjoyed it at the time, but it wasn’t very memorable for me however its a good start to the collection because its a familiar premise with Noviks sharp wit and prose before she truely shows what she can do with some of the later ones which are some of the most original fantasy I’ve read in a long time!

After Hours
I did skip this one once I realised there were spoilers for the third book in it but I’m planning on returning after I’ve read the golden enclaves book.

Vici
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Lots of people dont like this one from reviews but i loved it! It was mark Antony with dragons and the founding of the dragon corps. It was short sweet and had literally everything I like in it. My only complaint is that it was too short for me to really give it those full five stars because we only saw a few pages of this but it was so good!

Dragons & Decorum
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is a pride and prejudice retelling with dragons set in the Temenarie world and I loved it! The wit of the dragons, the connection between Elizabeth and Darcy and the fact that Naomi Novik can so closely mirror the chemistry and cleverness of the first in a short story is amazing.

Commonplaces
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was essentially fan fiction of a character from Sherlock and while it was interesting and engaging enough because i had not read the book that this one was based on I think i missed some of the callbacks that people who have read the book may have enjoyed.

Buried Deep
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This story was so sad. It was the retelling of Ariadne and the Minotaur but focusing on their brother sister relationship and the pain of having someone you love torn away from you. The pain of the characters truely came through and i could feel every time Ariadne stomped the pattern across her brothers labyrinth to remind him she was still here for him in my heart. It’s almost making me cry even now it was so beautiful and i wish that Naomi Novik would write more Greek myths.

Seven Years from Home
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was the one that for me felt like a novel. It was beautiful and complex featuring a soldier sent to colonise a nation but grows to learn that she in fact respects their way of life but she is still loyal to her Confederacy. The magic system in this book is so so strong I’m taken aback by it, the exploration of how you can seperate morality and reason and the way that such a short time somewhere can leave a lasting impression on you was so beautifully explored. Another one that almost made me cry by the end, it’s rare i read something as perfect as this.

The Long Way Around
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I hope she does like she hinted make this into a novel this is a sea journey that explores strange lands through the perspective of some of the best shipbuilders in the land. Tress was capable and logical and i loved her pragmatism against her brothers romantic and optimistic ways. We have a doomed romance between secondary characters in this, strange buildings and a possibility to change the course of their world’s shipping lanes. I cant wait to see if we are going to get more in this world!

Spinning Silver
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’ve read the book of this and i enjoyed it so the shorter version that was the original was fun to read! I loved the way that it delved into her economic sense. It’s so rare for a heroine to be smart and actually have some business sense in a YA book that i was in love from the beginning. I love cruel practical heroines and this one was perfection.

Lord Dunsany’s Teapot
⭐️⭐️⭐️
So so short but fun to read – despite being about a magical artifact in the world wars! Definitely worth a read it has some gorgeous imagery and hope and humanity to it!

I cant remember much about the rest of them, i think there were a few more but they weren’t long enough that I found them memorable personally. Still there were none that i disliked and would have rated lower than three stars which is super impressive considering some of them were literally only about twenty pages.

Romance and Violence Ratings are both very low for all, Seven years from home is the only one that had some described death and pain. Romance wise all the kisses are G rated and no description.

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Mini Mention Monday

Welcome back to another mini mention for those books that dont quite have enough to chat about that i can write a long usual blog post on them but still deserve a little bit of a spotlight and i want to share the violence and spice ratings for!

The Royal Runaway by Kate O Keefe

This is a fun quick romcom and the main thing i loved was that they both were keeping their identity from each other. It’s not the best place to start a relationship but that they were both doing it made it feel a lot less toxic than some hidden identity romances. I loved all the rules that structured the beginning of the book and the way they slowly dispersed as Amelia gained more confidence. There was an interesting twist at the end which i knew must be coming because there were little odd clues but it was still a little bit of a surprise. 

Romance Rating: Soft – just kisses, little to no detail. 

Violence Rating: Level 1 – this is a ‘clean’ romance it doesn’t have any violence in it. 

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Mini Mention Monday

This is where I have all my little mini reviews (that you can also find on Fable, StoryGraph and Goodreads, although Fable is my primary short form reviewing platform) for books that were three stars or under and so I’m not going to write a whole blog post for but still want to give you my thoughts and the violence/spice ratings for them!

Royally Off Limits by Kate O Keeffe

This is the fourth book in this series, and it held up to the fun romcom expectations I had for it. This one is I think my favourite of the series so far – Max and Valentina had this amazing tension and chemistry and I always love a good secret identity/backstory. We alternate povs throughout book and overall it was a solid fun rom-com. It didn’t rock my world but it comfortably sat within it and I enjoyed the ride. My favourite part was when Max and Valentina were still in the interview phase, i would have loved more scenes of them interacting like they did at the archery range. Overall if you want a quick light rom-com this is the one to read and it’s a great series to binge over the holidays.
I will say that that terse vibe between them in the beginning is perfection though and I really enjoyed it.

Romance Rating: Soft – kissing, little to no description.
Violence Level – Level 1 – it’s a romcom we don’t have any violence in it.
Content Warnings: none.

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Mini Mention Monday – Picking Daisies on Sundays by Liana Cincotti

This is the place where I mention all the reads that dont quite merit a full review because they are under four stars, but I also have things to say so I can let you know what content is in them (if i finished them or not, i do include DNFs if i read over half way because that has wasted enough of my time that i can have opinions).

I’ve had this book on my TBR for a while and when i saw it came onto Kindle Unlimited i thought why not I’m in the mood for a calm predictable romance. This didnt surprise me, it was exactly what i thought it would be, but i enjoyed it. I felt like the main character was the saving grace of this book, she was interesting and flawed enough to make me continue but I struggled with the chemistry between the characters. I felt like Levi was so perfect that he wasn’t almost real and this may just have been because we were seeing him through Daisy’s eyes whom was head over heels in love with him but i really just thought the romance was underdeveloped. They had this epic love story on paper, but what it really was was a not quite unrequited love from high school and a random meet up that threw them together. This would work as a hallmark romance big city story but i just struggled with the lack of depth anywhere except in Daisy/Dani’s personal journey.

Romance Rating: Sweet – we get a few described kisses, but they are in very little detail.

Violence Rating: this is a tricky one to rate because Daisy is assaulted in the book, she gets away before he can do more than touch her leg but it still raises this quite a lot from a level one. I’m going to put this at a level two because there is no other violence in the whole book at all, and so a level four doesn’t fit it either.

Content Warnings: body dysphoria (experienced by the main character but not named), sexual assault on the main character (she gets away after he touches her leg and tries to pyschologically abuse her into thinking her only chance at success is if he helps her but it is still a significant plot point which was unusually violent in a otherwise calm novel), parental death of a father from cancer

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Burn the Sea by Mona Tewari




Pub Date: 21st of April 2026
Publisher: Bindery Books
Genre: Fantasy, retelling,
Age Category: 

As I was reading this book, I was thinking that it almost was historical fiction in feel except set in a fantasy world. And I think that that is a really good way of describing the luxurious world but always realistic political landscape in this book – so many fantasy books ignore what you actually have to do to rule a country, and so I loved that this didn’t shy away from the fact that sometimes an arranged marriage is the only option for the countries future even if it isn’t the best for yours. Of course when I read the authors acknowledgments at the end which discussed how this was actually a fantasy retelling of the story of Rani Abbakka Chowta, an amazing queen whom like so many others has been diminished in history books but this I feel was a worthy tribute because honestly it has no faults. Every piece of language is beautiful and lyrical and all the emotions feel so real. I will admit to staying up late for this book and I’m so happy that I started November with this book because it’s a five star of five stars!

The “othering” of the colonisers is one of my favourite things I’ve read this year, just twisting the narrative to show a different perspective which is what all fantasy should do.

The arranged marriage relationship was so strong because the man she marries isnt her happily ever after but he isnt the worst human imaginable which are usually the two ways that the arranged marriage storyline goes so I LOVED that!

I can’t wait until this comes out because I need someone else to gush over all the little beautiful heartwrenching things in this book!

World – 5/5 – yess! I love Mantana and the birds so much, and the way that she interacts with them as a child and then as an adult. The world itself is so vibrant and seems to come off the page with food and smells and textures.

Plot – 5/5 – I loved it.

Characters – 4.5/5 – I’ve already talked about Mantana the green lion so let me talk about the others! They were all really individual strong characters which I loved but I wish that we had got a taste of Thevon and his childhood a bit more but I think that will come in the next book because the cliff hanger is a two hundred feet one!

Romance – 4/5 – we don’t get much at all, but its very promising so I cant wait!

Romance Rating: Sweet – kissing and making out are described and mentioned. We know that they sleep together but it is less than a paragraph in past tense and euphemistic on page.

Violence Rating: Level 4 – nothing unusual in fantasy but there are sustained bloody fights which go on for more than a chapter which I loved but might be a bit much for some people.

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The Baby Dragon Bookshop by A T Qureshi

 




Pub Date: 12th of February, 2026
Publisher: Avon
Genre: Cosy Fantasy, Romance
Age Category: Adult

I have loved every page of the previous two books and so this one was a no brainer for me instant ARC request and first on my reading list once it was approved. This was extraordinarily good as all of her books are and once again it proves that romance books can be five stars for me just as much as epic fantasy and historical fantasy because honestly it was like she had read my mind and written the perfect book. Let me dive into it.

To begin with Emmeline and Luke have this raw chemistry that is so present in every line and gesture towards each other. It means that even something as simple as handing her a thermos of tea has so much emotional charge and feeling behind it and the whole book was devoured by me in one sitting because I couldn’t go to sleep before I had inhaled every word of this gorgeous gorgeous book.

Their history and rivalry is offset against moments where they genuinely connect and we get this slow growth throughout the book towards each other which is so beautiful to see. Often with enemies to lovers or rivals to lovers which this is, they go from rivals to lovers, its instant and overnight and usually just because they find the other physically attractive. However the way this is crafted makes it a love story that will last not just a lust story that will fizzle out when the pages close like a lot of romance books I read and yes. Just read it. This book is everything that the romance genre should be and it swirls in some gorgeously humerous baby dragon moments too (and also a few references back to the last couples if you’ve read the first two books!)

The character of Emmeline is eldest daughter incarnate, and I love that it isnt hammered home that point but slowly shown and developed through her actions. I may have got a tear in my eye when Luke noticed her efforts and helped her – okay I definitely did – because everything about this book was emotionally perfect and romantic and yet somehow builds upon the world that was established in the first two books. I loved seeing the Chimeras side of the valley and I’ve just got all my fingers and toes crossed that we get another book because this is AMAZING!

World – 5/5 – is it a hardcore epic world no but is it perfect and settled and everything that I need to to be yes.

Characters – 5/5 – literal perfection. I’m going to create a list of the top books I’ve read this year and this is going to be on it because PERFECTION!

Romance – 100000/5 – it’s so good that I cant describe it in any other way than perfectly imperfect and swoony!

Plot – 4.5/5 – I knew what was going to happen, it’s a romance book, they follow a three act structure but the way it happened? The way it was developed? If tropes were always represented like this I wouldn’t get bored of them!

Romance Rating: Suggestive Swoony B – we get some steamy making out and a very slow fade to black/less than a page sex scene with euphemistic language.

Violence Rating: Level 1 – its romance.

Content Warnings: mention of a girl getting her drink spiked at a party years ago and what could have happened if she hadnt been found in time. The man who drugged her drink interacts with some of the characters at one point but no justice is found.

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