mspilesofpaper's reviews
875 reviews

Letters to Half Moon Street is the first book in a series that is set in a queer magical alternate Regency era where only the birth order matters (in terms of inheriting, ...) but not your gender or sexual orientation. It is a cosy romance with super low stakes with a happy ending.

Letters to Half Moon Street is a short romance novel that is entirely epistolary, mostly in letters between Gavin (the male main character) and his sister Gerry, after Gavin's family sends him to London "to get out of the house" as his older brother comes home with his expecting sister-in-law, and the parents know that Gavin and John do not get along. The official reason for Gavin to go to London is to take care of the family business for their father and to prepare the family's townhouse for the upcoming season. Gavin is the classic introvert who cares more about books than people and considers his sister as his closest friend. Henceforth, he utterly struggles to find a foot in London and keeps the first pages to himself. Yet, he manages to catch the eye of Charles Kentworthy who is set on winning him over - either just as a friend or as a potential husband - and determinedly draws Gavin out of his shell. Each letter to his sister shows that Gavin's world slowly opens up and he starts to include Charles in a positive light. It's utterly cute and delightful to read. Despite the letter style of the book, it never felt distancing although we learn about Gavin's growing relationship with Charles only through his letters to his sister.

The world-building is utterly delightful and well thought-through. It is a queer-normative magical alternate Regency era where your birth order matters by far more than your gender or sexual orientation. Everyone in this world has "a persuasion" (which is the romantic preference, may it be for men, women, non-binary or any combination), which is socially accepted. The importance of your birth order (first-born, second-born, third-born, ...) shows in tiny aspect as the addresses ("Lady and Lord xxx" instead of the typical "Lord and Lady xxx" if she is the first-born) or in the gender-neutral title Dukex for non-binary aristocratic people. I loved how the author built the typical restrictions for the Regency era around their queer-normative world. For example, being unchaperoned as a minor with a person who suits your persuasion is still an issue (and if you aren't open about your persuasion, you'll require simply a chaperone at all times), and the families are still nosy about their children's persuasion so they can make a good and fitting match. In addition, the function of a dowry is not linked to women anymore, it is linked to the birth order. As Gavin is the second-born of the family, he has to bring in a dowry while his brother, as the first-born, does not have to do it. The importance of the birth order also shows in small aspects like dancing at a ball where the position of the dancing card will indicate the birth order and where the first-born always takes the lead in a dance. 
As for the magic in the world: magic is not something to flaunt in someone's face. It is meant to be practical magic, e.g. keeping your candles burning longer, cooling/warming a room or beverages, tying a cravat. Spells have to be built by a spell master in a spell shop with ingredients and can end up in disastrous results if they aren't handled carefully. Overall, it feels very well-established and well-thought-through.

As for the characters:
‣ Gavin is 25 years old, white, demisexual and gay.
‣ Charles is 27 years old, BIPOC heritage ("rather naturally a few shades darker than ours [skin tone], "so dark as to be black" [hair colour], "large, brown, angular eyes"), bisexual.
‣ Gerry is 23 years old, white, undisclosed sexuality.
‣ Sebastian is 18 years old, white and gay.
‣ John is in his thirties, white and straight.
‣ Julian (Dukex of Molbury) is between 50 - 60 years, white, non-binary. 

Song of the Abyss is the second instalment of the Deep Waters series, which started with Whispers in the Deep. The story is about Daios, whom we meet in the first instalment, and Anya. While you can technically read it as a standalone, I would advise you to read the first book as well. It's a paranormal romance and so far, four books will be in the series. The next one will be about Maketes and I'm excited! (And please check out the author's Instagram because she has an image available of the size differences between all undines and humans. It's ... something. :D)

Daios, who hates humans and is plagued by decisions of his past, is tasked with kidnapping the golden daughter of Alpha's General: Anya. Anya was raised as the city's darling and songbird who is more than willing to get kidnapped by an undine as she views him as his ticket out of Alpha and as a way to reach her own goals. Both realise relatively quickly that these two goals align and, more importantly, that they are both not as whole as everyone else.
Not only has Anya to deal with a very abusive and controlling parent but she is also hard of hearing after an accident when she was a teenager, which is 100% the fault of her father as he left her, a curious young child, alone in a room filled with weapons. Ever since Anya relies on a small robot to be able to communicate with others as sign language is - more or less - a dead language in the underwater cities. Meanwhile, Daios is a soldier/warrior who suffers from PTSD and the loss of his arm, and is utterly haunted by the decisions of his past. Those scenes are very creepy. (I cannot say how accurate the PTSD representation is or how accurate Anya's experience is. The author mentioned in the foreword that she had sensitivity readers and I would consider the scenes with Daios' struggles and Anya's experiences as realistic and accurate. But alas, I am not hard of hearing nor do I have PTSD.)

Concerning their relationship: it is a lot faster than Arges and Mira as they don't deal with the language barricade, and because Anya is willing to go with Daios. While she mentions several times to herself that he is a monster, she never truly sees him as a monster. I feel like they are better at communication than Arges and Mira. I liked it a lot that Daios never truly ventured into the "overbearing alpha male who has to protect his mate" territory and trusts Anya to fulfil her role in bringing down Alpha. Yes, he wants to follow her and is utterly anxious but he isn't the typical male character who would be like "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!". He trusts Anya, never underestimates her ability to do something, and never tries to stop her from doing things that she believes are necessary to reach their end goal. Even if it would cost them both everything. It's a nice twist from normal hetero relationships in romance novels and feels very healthy.

If you want to read the book for the spice: similar to the first book, there are only two sex scenes, which I would rate with 🌶️ 🌶️ - 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️ as they are graphic but not as intense or extreme as sex scenes in other monster romance novels. Yes, undines have two 🍆, which adds a certain spice factor, but it's still mild.

My only criticism is the ending and the information bomb that Anya's father drops on her. It happened all a bit too quickly. The pacing or the general quickness of everything is really the main issue of the book. Also: why the fuck are Mira and Arges portrayed as near-antagonists in this novel? Yes, I understand that both are wary of Daios and worried that he might hurt Anya but Arges KNOWS that Daios' views her as her mate. I hope they don't continue like it in the 3rd book when it's Maketes turn. 

Based on the premise, To Shape A Dragon's Breath includes several elements that I love, so I thought that I would like it as well. Especially since a lot of booktokers and bookstagramers that I follow love the book and hype it a lot. Unfortunately, the book fell utterly flat in my opinion.

The biggest issue, for me, is the world-building. The author took our world, and a large chunk of known history, but instead of the British Empire, they let the Norse (Norwegians, Swedes and Danes) become the powerhouse of the world. They conquered Anglesland (England, Scotland and Wales) and became the rulers there instead of vanishing into the Normans and Anglo-Saxons. In addition, the Norse went on conquering Tyskland (Germany), Polland (Poland), Frankland (France), Finnland (Finland) and parts of Russland (Russia). They were at war with Vaskosland (Spain and Portugal) in North America (North Markesland) and came to a peace treaty that gave land below New England to Vaskosland while they kept New England and Canada. Currently, they are fighting against the Natives at the Western Frontier (likely just the area to the West of the Great Lakes). The known world also covers Northern Africa (Furth, Widnes and Coptland are the respective countries that are known in Aprika), Tuscanland (Italy), Turksland (Turkey), Pashanland (likely a reference to Persia), Kindah (Sinai, parts of Palestine and then a large chunk of the Arabic Peninsula), Kedar (Oman and Yemen), Roveland (more or less Central Asia and parts of South-West Asia), Indusland (India), Shiang-Gang (China), Zhongu (Korea), and Zhippon (Japan). In the past, Tyskland used to have quite some influence on the European continent, excelled in natural sciences and was influential in dragon husbandry.
Personally, I would have been ok with such a world if the author had used more time to explain the history. The reader is expected to either know (by unknown devices) about the world to understand it or to go with the flow and ignore their own ignorance because Anequs only learns a tiny part of history. Mostly, the part where it explains why there is so much fucking German Tysklandish in the vocabulary. If you do speak German (either because you are German, Austrian, Swiss German or learned it at one point): it will drive you mad because the book includes sentences like "Marta announced that she'd have Wurzelsalat and Weichkäse, with Pflaumentorte to follow.", which hinders the reading experience a lot. Also, there's zero explanation why Tysklandish is still so prominent in use that children of the upper society have to learn it, why there's a German café in New England, ... - it is only explained why the majority of skiltakraft (the book's version of chemistry) uses Tysklandish to refer to elements, why a hypothesis is called "vermutun" (technically it should be Vermutung but well), ... but not why the photographer is called "lichtbildmacher" or why there's a German café in New England with a German menu. It irked me so much while reading because it isn't logical. In addition to the entire Tysklandish as one of the major languages: the Norse who conquered Anglesland became the Angles/Anglish while they still refer to their Norsklandish heritage. England became England because the Anglo-Saxons bested the Vikings at one point and the leftover Vikings either assimilated into the Anglo-Saxon culture or they left. England refers to the land of the angles. Given the fact that the Norse won against the Anglo-Saxon, there's zero requirement for them to become the Angles nor to develop a culture that refers to the English high society (think the Golden Age under Queen Elizabeth I.) in terms of clothing, behavioural expectations, ... while their political culture is still very Norse with a High King/Queen, jarls, thanes, ... and includes points like holmgangs (duels to the death). It would have been much more interesting to read a novel with a world where the Norse became the major powerhouse and kept their own culture instead of shoehorning parts of it into English history and putting a layer of steampunk on top of it.

My second biggest issue is the writing style, and by extension, the pacing. The writing is very dry and clinical at times. Yes, it plays in a school setting but there's no requirement for the book to read like a fucking textbook. The dialogues are stilted and at times unnecessarily complicated. It doesn't help that the author infodumps the skiltakraft onto the reader while not giving a glossary. Yes, we have a pronunciation guide (please do not get me started on the pronunciation of the German words) but no glossary. I still have no idea what exactly is happening when someone shapes a dragon's breath aside from "it is chemistry and something will be broken into different elements". There's a periodic table at the beginning of the book as it will be mentioned several times during the novel. If you want to understand the elements mentioned there: open an actual periodic table of the elements. The numbers on the table are accurate and line up with the ones of an actual periodic table. E.g., saffle is sulphur. (If you don't look it up, you will struggle with understanding the elements because parts are German, parts are faintly diverted from a Scandinavian language (Sulphur is called "Svavel" in Swedish, which then is changed to "saffle" because I have the feeling that the author might think that's how you say svavel) etc.) If the author doesn't infodump on skiltakraft, the reader has to endure uneventful day-to-day storytelling, which results in the last chapter being a summary of what else is happening. It feels like the publisher told the author to do it, so it wouldn't become a book with 800 pages. If the book is meant to be read as an account of Anequs' becoming a dragoneer/nampeshiweisit, and as a historical record of the growing tension between Angles and natives, it should have been mentioned in a foreword or in the summary. Because as it stands: there's no actual plot until a climax happens extremely late but what is a climax without a plot?

My last issue with the book is Anequs as a character. Oh my God, she is so fucking boring and the quintessential Mary Sue who can never do anything wrong. Of course, she speaks fluently and extremely eloquently despite learning Anglish from novels as she has no formal upbringing. She is utterly perfect and has no flaws. If she is involved in any conflicts it is because she is drawn into them unwillingly and the conflicts arise because of racism. In every conflict, she behaves perfectly and is always extremely morally sound, well-spoken, intelligent, and rational. For fuck's sake, she is supposed to be FIFTEEN YEARS old. Of course, all her arguments are correct but that's not because of how Anequs speaks/argues but because I would have agreed with the idea behind her argument prior. In addition to her perfection: her romances come out of nowhere. There's one scene with Liberty (a young black woman who is basically a slave who can buy herself out of her enslavement) where Liberty takes Anequs measurements for a dress and suddenly Anequs wants to kiss her, which she does in a later scene. There's another scene where Anequs thinks about kissing Theod because they danced a waltz together, and she kisses him in another chapter. There's no chemistry between any pairings. Liberty tells her out of nowhere that they cannot be together because a) homosexuality is bad and b) I have to pay off my enslavement debt. Theod confesses his love for Anequs out of nowhere as well. I don't understand why people are so excited about the poly representation because there isn't really one. Yes, Anequs wants to court both but neither Theod nor Liberty are aware of the situation. Both believe that Anequs will just be courting them in the future.

TL;DR: I am tired and exhausted upon finishing the book. 110% infodumping on fantasy chemistry, no glossary, extremely weird and unsatisfying world-building, and a Mary Sue as main character. If you're an author who plans on creating fantasy chemistry: DO INCLUDE A GLOSSARY! The dragons are boring because you could replace them with a dog and nothing would be changed. 

Dragon Bound is the first instalment in a series of paranormal romances that feature supernatural characters (mostly shapeshifters called Wyr) on their way to find a mate. It is set in the modern-day USA (the first book is set in New York City with a short trip to South Carolina). There's no mention of the year but it feels very modern and recent and not set in the 80s or so.

In terms of the book: it was a massive issue of my expectations vs. reality. Based on the cover and the summary, I thought that it would be a fantasy read with spicy romance scenes. Instead, it is 120% straight smut. If you want an urban fantasy with tons of very explicit sex scenes: go for it (and do not continue reading the review because I will critique it A LOT). If you are like me and would prefer more than just sex: skip it and pick something else.

***

First of all: the characters (main and side characters).
‣ Dragos Cuelebre
His fucking name. Dragos is a Romanian/Serbian given name, which comes from the word root "drag". Do you know what the word root means? Dear, beloved, precious. Cuelebre is a gigantic winged serpent-dragon of Asturian mythology who takes xanas (young, beautiful women/water spirits) as prisoners. Asturias is a region in Northern Spain (Gijón and Oviedo might be the most known cities). So, basically the author named the character "beloved dragon". Though the first thought when reading Dragos might be "dragon" to create a "dragon dragon". I'm so mad about it because it's lame af.

In addition, to the name issue: he is millions of years old. Quite literally because he was created when time was created (or the Earth). He is the oldest and strongest Elder Race being in the books. To underline how old and strong he is: he was considered a God by several cultures. Of course, he is the stereotypical alphahole that comes with it. WHY DO THEY ALWAYS HAVE TO BE LIKE IT!? Of course, the author explains it with his being - being a dragon - why he is such an arse. Furthermore, his description is ... I'm just tired. He's the stereotypical overly muscular, tall love interest with an eight-pack and a massive dick. Basically, tall, dark, handsome and morally grey. Aside from his defining (or lack of) looks, his dick, and his awful behaviour (aggressive, possessive, ...): he has no defining features. He has no understanding of pop culture, no hobbies or anything. Not so fun fact: the author fell into the typical trap of alphahole characters and makes him larger with each chapter while the female character seems to become smaller with each chapter. It gets to the point where his hand can cover half of her skull. 🙃

‣ Pia Giovanni
I will never understand why US-American authors are obsessed with anything Italian. It isn't her actual name because her TRUE NAME is a secret that will give anyone, who knows it, power over her. Hence, the reader will not learn it. Hence, I cannot tell you how stupid the name will be but I bet that the author picked something that means purity.

Her defining features are her hidden wyr (which was very easy to guess, in my opinion, but I will not spoil it) and her stupidity. The only reason why she survived as long as she did before meeting Dragos: her mother's protection spells and sheer plot armour. Without both, she would have been long dead. Unfortunately, she never really learns during the novel and continues to survive by sheer luck, plot armour or Dragos' timely interference. Aside from these two characteristics: she doesn't have anything else. Sure, she used to have a job and is vaguely familiar with a handful of characters but they play no importance after a couple of chapters anymore. Of course, she is in her 20s and therefore much younger than the male love interest, and most likely mortal because she is a half-breed.

‣ side characters
The majority of them will become the main characters in the following novels but based on how they appear in this one: they will be as underdeveloped and undefined there as they are now. The male characters will act like alphaholes of varying degrees while the few female characters (who are supposed to be in positions of power) will just be waiting for the male hero to arrive, so he can save her and then fuck her. The few side characters who will never play a major role in the upcoming novels are so stereotypical. E.g., the personal shopper for Pia is portrayed as flamboyant and gay because - of course - a male personal shopper must be flamboyant and gay.

Concerning the world-building: it is utterly vague and the little information that the author gives to the reader is so unsatisfying that it results in more questions than answers. For the most part, the world-building is saved by the fact that it plays in modern-day New York City (although there's not much to identify NYC as NYC) and other parts of the USA. The few scenes that are set in the Otherworld are vaguely described in terms of "where are we" and could be easily somewhere in our world as well. The major defining trait of the Otherworld is the lack of modern amenities and items. The higher the degree of technology, the faster it will backfire in the user's face in the Otherworld.

As for the romance, there's not much to say aside from the fact that it's based on the "fated mates" trope, instant lust and love. The entire story happens within two or three weeks to give you a time frame. There's no explanation for why they fell for each other aside from instant attraction and one magical sex dream. Dragos' rage about his stolen item vanishes as soon as he lays eyes on her. He's obsessed with her from the beginning due to her scent as he cannot truly place it while it does feel familiar. (Also, they fuck right away after a dangerous moment instead of getting away from the danger.)

My biggest pet peeve is the description of Pia's and Dragos' colouring though. Pia is described as extremely pale (as cream/as the moon) with white golden hair, and midnight sapphire blue eyes. Of course, she also glows if she lets go of her mother's hiding spell. Of course, she becomes paler with each passing chapter and there's such an emphasis on her colouring, and the implied purity of it, that it's extremely easy to guess her Wyr form. Meanwhile, Dragos is described as tanned (or bronze/copper because it changes with the chapters), with pitch-black hair and golden raptor eyes. Whereas Pia's colouring becomes paler with each chapter, his colouring becomes darker with each chapter. I have major issues with any fantasy/romantasy book that uses the "black and white" colouring scheme for their love interest because white implies purity in the Western world (and let's admit it, 99% of these books are set in the Western world or worlds inspired by the western hemisphere), and authors always use it for their very white female characters. Their male characters are always white in terms of facial features but their skin colour is never white. It is always between "Could be a white man with tanned skin or a BIPOC person with a white man's face". I have beef with books that use the white-black/light-dark scheme for their female-male characters.


TL;DR: 120% smut, 3% plot, 0% character development. If you want a spicy and smutty book with the bare minimum of a plot, and even less world-building, because you want the sex scenes: go for it. It has a Happy End but fair warning: the author used the pregnancy trope. If you want more than that: skip it (and the entire series). 

Choosing Theo is the first instalment in an alien romance series. If you like romance novels that are mostly based on tropes, have a couple of sex scenes, and don't really require you to pay attention to the world-building: go for it. If you don't like those things: just skip it.

As mentioned, the story is mostly based on tropes (and not just 1 - 2 tropes but A LOT). Here's a list:
✅ Fated Mates
✅ Abduction of FMC
✅ Grumpy/Sunshine
✅ Forced proximity
✅ Marriage of convenience
✅ Male characters have animal-like characters
✅ Matriarchal society
✅ Primal Play

I'm sure that I forgot some.

I think I could have been fine with an alien romance that's mostly based on tropes if there weren't other points that irked me so much.

1. The description of the aliens. They are basically humans; just taller and prettier. The author explains it with "a common ancestor between humankind and Clecanians" but it's lame. The only difference between humans and them is their size as they are taller and more muscular. Well, and the men's dicks are longer and thicker while the women don't have a clit and require a 24-hour resting period where they can't have sex (which is such bullshit, tbh). In addition, they have white/gold tattoos that are their birthmarks. That's it. I would prefer unusual, weird aliens.

2. The world-building makes rarely any sense. It's a matriarchal society where men outnumber women (like 20 - to - 1 or so), so they developed a system of marriage where women pick (and test) a man before marrying them for three months. He has to prove that he can take care of her and potential children by cooking, childcare, cleaning, and sexual satisfaction, ... - the women can decide after three months if they want to continue the marriage for another month (or three) or if they just leave and go through the selection again. The system is designed to maximise the number of children per woman with a large gene pool to prevent inbreeding. While I don't mind the system per se, I don't understand why the author decided to include "women cannot get too attached to their husbands, children, potential pets, so they just accept material wealth and then leave" when she never mentioned it as a rule prior the reveal from a side character. Fuck, even Theo's mother stayed with her husband forever. It was considered unusual but it wasn't forbidden; they even got five children out of it! I believe that the author just involved it to have the fated mates concept as well because "only mates will stay together forever" but it's so annoying.

3. Theo. He is an awful character. He's a tough and successful mercenary who is ruthless. He is also disliked by most characters because of his black birthmarks/tattoos, which is so stupid. It's basically "we value pretty things and you aren't pretty enough anymore for a marriage but enough for rough sex". His mental health is completely in shambles as he's extremely insecure about his looks. Instead of working on it (either with family and friends or maybe even therapy since the race acts as if they are so well developed), he makes it everyone else's problem that he isn't conventionally attractive. The FMC is unlikeable per se but I want to slap her across the face since she puts up with all his bullshit instead of just leaving as it would be her right. Especially when he starts to become aggressively physical with her (squeezing her neck, chasing her through the forest (when she isn't even aware of the effect on him), manhandling her, ...) and ignores all her fighting back because "she smells of arousal". It isn't even "bad boy" behaviour, which she digs, it's extremely aggressive and borderline abusive, which is something he isn't allowed to do with a woman. Of course, Theo is extremely manly and roars whenever he has an orgasm and behaves very animal-like in general. In addition, he just jumps to wild conclusions for no reason (due to his bad mental health). "A woman is interested in me? LIE! A woman wants to marry me? SHE MUST BE A SPY!". GO TO THERAPY, YOU CAVEMAN.

4. Jade is a fucking joke of a female character. No spine, no set morals and values. She's ruled by her pussy. Of course, she has flaming red hair and green eyes while also being considered as "too fat" on Earth but of course, the alien digs it. She is just fucking curvy. Maybe an EU size 42 and not an EU 38. That's it. She's not fat. She has a normal body. If you want to write a plus-size character, do it well and make her an actual plus-size.

5. The plot is dragged out for nothing and the third act conflict is so paper thin. The author could have done a lot with the "cult who wants to save their race while ignoring all the intergalactic laws" plot arc but it was done so cartoonish. In general, the plot has more holes than anything else. It's like Swiss cheese.

TL;DR: Erotic wish fulfilment from the author who desires a matriarchal society where men have to serve women in pretty much every way. Could have been a lot of fun if she had established an actual plot, good world-building and a well-developed romance instead of a romance that's based on multiple tropes, instant lust and love. Two stars because it has a cute alien dog. 

Thank you, Solaris Books and Netgalley for sending me an eARC

Vampires of El Norte is a historical romance, with horror elements, that plays in 1840's Mexico (Southern Texas) during the invasion of Mexico by the United States Army, which resulted in the annexation of Texas. (Though technically, the invasion wasn't limited to Texas but so happened in other states but I will leave it out as the book plays just in Texas.)

Plot-wise, Magdalena "Nena" is the daughter of the rancher who owns the Los Ojuelos ranch, and is therefore expected to marry well, so the ranch gains additional cattle but also men and support against the encroaching Anglos. When she's 13 years old, she sneaks out one night to find hidden Spanish silver with her childhood sweetheart Nestor, when something attacks them and mauls Nena brutally. While he carries her back to the ranch, he flees shortly afterwards as he believes that she is dead. Nena didn't die though and grew up to be a young woman who believes that her childhood sweetheart just left the ranch "to stretch out his legs", and is utterly hurt by it. When the threat of the Anglos becomes more prominent, Nestor returns to the ranch and they both realise in the following chapters how wrong they were.

The story plays mostly on the Los Ojuelos ranch, which is roughly 45 minutes away from Laredo (by car). Whenever the story isn't set on the ranch, it will be around Laredo or in the area down to Matamoros. If you feel lost now: just open Google Maps. The UK version has no map, so I was constantly looking up where everything is because my geographical knowledge of Texas is limited to the positions of the major cities like Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. Despite using Google Maps regularly, I still felt often lost enough because the book demands a good knowledge of the area. They crossed several rivers and I still try to figure out if they crossed the Rio Grande (which seems likely as they fled from the battlefield around Matamoros) but later, were close to a river again but I don't know if it would be still the Rio Grande or one of the other smaller rivers. Aside from the lack of geographical orientation: the book requires a good knowledge of the history between the US and Mexico. Maybe US students learn about it in their history classes but we never discussed it in my history lessons in Germany, so I felt rather lost until I read the Wikipedia page about the invasion/war. In the author's note at the end, the author mentions that she did intensive research for the book (while writing her dissertation for her PhD) and you notice it. It's in all the small details that will make sense to someone who is familiar with the history and the Mexican culture but it really went over my head most of the time. Though luck, I know.

So, with these two points out of the way: the book is mostly a romance novel. The vampires add some horror but it's extremely mild. Yes, they are beast-like vampires (occasionally called El Cuco too) and not the sparkly kind or the overly sexy kind. Unfortunately, the vampires and their attacks aren't creepy enough. In the author's note, the author quotes one of her sources for the book that inspired her to include vampires. In the source, vampires were an analogy for the Anglos stealing Mexican land and killing people. That's it. So, instead of making the Anglos even worse, the vampires get shoehorned into the story as a supernatural element that is used by the US Army. There's no explanation why they exist, there's no actual connection to existing Mexican folklore. I wish the author would have either concentrated on the Anglos and their encroachment as the scary part or would have put an actual effort into the vampire element. (Because the end of how Nena deals with the vampires makes me so fucking mad.)

Concerning the romance: Nena and Nestor are starcrossed lovers and their romance is based on the forbidden romance trope. While I found their connection as teenagers understandable, I couldn't wrap my head around why both still pined after each other FOR NINE FUCKING YEARS. Yes, in Nestor's case, he puts her onto a pedestal and worships her as he considers her dead but it's still odd. In Nena's case, it's even worse because it's the constant "I still like him" vs. "I have to be hard, he left me!". Their miscommunication for the longest part was extremely exhausting.

TL;DR: my expectations were rather high and I was disappointed as they weren't fulfilled. I wanted more vampires (since the title is Vampires of El Norte who are treated as actual monsters. I would have loved a map and a glossary for all the Spanish words because I was so lost when it came to them. Yes, an eReader has a translate feature, which is helpful, but if you don't speak Spanish and are reading the hardcover/paperback/audio, you will be lost. If you like historical romances with a forbidden romance element, you might enjoy it more than I do. If you want a gothic horror novel with vampires: skip it. 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me an eArc.

For the record: I was very excited about the book and thought that it would be a great YA fantasy read but oh boy, I was in for a disappointment because ultimately, the novel feels very half-baked and unfinished.

Ultimately, the novel doesn't just feel very unfinished, it also seems to be aimed at the wrong target group. Based on Ying's age (18 years), I would have expected something that is aimed at 16+ but it reads as if it should be aimed at younger readers (e.g., Middle Grade). The only aspect that is slightly too much for Middle Grade is the light violence, the brothel scene (although it's mild), the romance and Ying's age herself.

Aside from this, my main issues are:
1) The engineering focus is lacking. The setup makes it seem as if it will be on the engineering aspect as Ying also enrols in the equivalent of a university for engineering that offers academic competition. It could have been great to highlight how technologically advanced the nation is and could have been used to showcase Ying's genius for engineering. Instead, it is shoe-horned into the plot instead of acting as a well-incorporated device for plot and character development. If I'm not mistaken, there are four scenes where Ying does something related to engineering. The author mentions multiple times how much Ying loves engineering, how much she learned from her father by shadowing him and being trained by him, so I would have assumed that her skill would be a major key element to solve the murder mystery. Instead, Ying just shows her skills when she meets her love interest, during two trials, and when she develops two weapons in the last 80%. It is very underwhelming because the author could have done so much with engineering in an Asian-inspired fantasy world.

2) The lack of character development for Ying and the side characters. Ying is the main character who is 18 years old, is the oldest daughter of her family and has ultra manly brother (yes, she highlights that Wen is very manly in comparison to the boys/young men that she meets in the Guild), and several younger siblings. Unfortunately, she acts much younger than her 18 years because she is reckless, hot-headed and never thinks things through. Concerning her siblings: as oldest daughter, I would have expected her to step up into a mother-like role as it would fit into the expectations of their society/culture. Instead, she seems not to be involved in their upbringing at all. Further, she is completely unchanged and unfazed by the deaths of her parents. Yes, she is angry at her father's death, and whines that neither him nor her mother fought enough to stay alive, but she never truly grieves. He's dead, they hold the funeral and then she is off to find revenge. Of course, she's a special snowflake who survives everything by luck or because of the side character.
The side characters are two-dimensional, stereotypical-like, underdeveloped and often inconsistent. There's Ye-kan who is feisty/bratty/selfish/entitled/angry/... and whose behaviour differs in terms of "Does it benefit Ying or not?". Chang-en is supposed to be Ying's best friend in the Guild but you could swap him for anyone else and it wouldn't make a difference. His only personality trait is to rile up another character. Ye-yang, the love interest, is as grey and bleak as his eyes.

3) The romance happens out of nowhere. It felt very unrequired to begin with as it quickly becomes just a plot device to add some tension. Aside from that, it is instant love/attraction after one scene and I don't understand what they saw in each other.

4) The world-building doesn't exist. The book starts on Ying's home island and highlights that they live in tents and have a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Then, Ying travels to the neighbouring island which has solid houses and already fancy technology. Then, she ends up on the main island with the capital and here, the world-building just leaves the book. The city is barely described and when it is described, I cannot get an image of it in my mind. There's the guild, the new palace, the most famous brothel, tons of canals, a bridge that's 10 stories high (???), and an artificial forest outside of it. Apparently, there are six more islands (technically seven islands but the 10th island is forbidden and the kingdom's leader even wages war against the 10th island although one of his wives/concubines came from there) but names are never mentioned. In general, the entire political aspect of the kingdom's clans & co is extremely underdeveloped. An important aspect of the novel is engineering and how technologically advanced they are with airships, robots, and steam-powered carriages, ... - it's very futuristic in some aspects but there's no explanation of how they got to it aside from "yeah we basically copied the airships from the Jade Empire and the green-eyed strangers". There's also no explanation for why the capital is so advanced while Ying's island has no technological tools to use.


TL;DR
A Middle Grade novel in the trenchcoat of a Young Adult novel. Extremely underdeveloped in terms of writing, world-building, plot and characters. The engineering and competition aspect is reduced to the sidelines and the plot is inconsistent and jumps from chapter to chapter. The murder mystery is no true mystery and the author throws a romance into the mix to keep the reader from figuring it out too early. The only reason why I gave it two stars instead of one star is that there's nothing truly problematic in the book. It just needs more editing and a few more rounds of revisions. And another marketing strategy that pushes it to younger readers in the Middle Grade age range. 

It reads like a Wattpad fanfiction of Gossip Girl - just with adult characters. It's so badly written.

What's with the obsession of American authors with Italian men for their male love interests? And why are they all called Dante? And why is the brother always called Luca? 

How We End takes the zombie apocalypse but instead of showing how to beat it by using a white straight man, the author took the question "How do we survive it without losing our humanity?" and created a small and diverse group as their main characters. The story is told from a dual perspective (Jake and Liv) and starts at very mundane points - being in the tube to meet friends in Central London, and being in a bar - and follows the group on their way out of Greater London towards a point where they thought it would lead to safety. It's a very character-driven story and is very stressful to read, especially the first 40% or so when no one knows exactly what is going on. If you like The Last of Us (either as the series or as one of the games), you should give it a try because it's difficult not to notice the inspiration.

Unlike the average zombie book (or movie), the zombies here are very diverse and not all act as "stupid, brain-rotten and driven by hunger" monsters who shuffle slowly along streets to get to their next meal. Instead, you have a wild variety of zombies who are often very fast and some are surprisingly intelligent. In addition, I think the book handled the governmental and civilian response very well. Normally, society falls instantly and everyone knows exactly what happened when the truth is that the governments would try to hide what is happening, you would have conspiracy theories running wild (just remember all the nonsense that was spruced during COVID-19) and people not believing it, people who would take advantage of the situation, ... - you get all of these points in How We End. Further, the novel includes issues such as "How do you defend yourself if you don't have access to guns?" (since the book is set in England and we have stricter gun laws than the US, so, of course, having a gun for defence would be far-fetched), how do you deal with the need for prescribed medication (for health reasons but also for an addiction), and how do you get new clothes and food because there won't be any shops open where you can buy anything. 

My only criticism would be the fast development of the zombies and the virus behind it. It took the zombies in The Last of Us game quite long to have so many different kinds but it's rather instanteneous in the novel. Where in the game, we are talking about several years, the timeline for the book is just a few weeks as the group leaves London in September/October and finds out about the mutations in October/November. While the author has a scene where it's hinted at the fact that the virus is out for longer than anyone thought, it still feels off. I think it would have been better to include a few more scenes to establish an actual timeline, so the reader would learn how long the virus LYM-1 was exposed to the public, about the first cases (they have to be outside of London since the mutations start to appear in the countryside) and then have London with the extreme amount of cases out of seemingly nowhere. 

TL;DR: If you like video games like The Last of Us, Resident Evil or movies/TV series like World War Z or The Walking Dead, you should give it a try. If you are new to the zombie genre but like stories with BIPOC and queer representation in them: give it a try! Either way, it is a smaller take on the zombie apocalypse where people try to survive instead of beating the zombies. Wonderful use of the 'found family' trope as well! 

A Soul to Keep isn't my first monster romance novel nor will it be my last one but it will be certainly the only one from the series that I will read. Why?

First of all: Why is it 544 pages long? Sure, the author included more plot than most monster romances/paranormal romances have but it is still too long. Often it is just Reia's internal monologue, which repeats itself every four pages, which is so annoying. In addition to the fact that it is just too long, the pacing is just off. If it had been tighter, and maybe just 300 pages long, I might have enjoyed it more. However, my rating dipped from 3.5 stars to 2 stars due to the arc that happened in the last 30%.

Why?
A) It was unrequired to implement the "original woman" plot in such a way.

B) Reia "I'm not like other girls" is a fucking arse. She lives her monster fucking dreams with the version of Orpheus who is very humane as he went through 19 (!) relationship (attempts) and had countless of humans devoured by the time he takes Reia. Reia meets a Duskwalker who has extremely limited humanity and notices several times that he is very stupid and lacks humanity. (It is important to point out, trust me.) And while she loves to get fucked by Orpheus, the original woman (Katerina) was living with the version of Orpheus that lacks humanity and who was at his most dangerous. It irked me so much that the author then reduces Katerina to a caricaturish villain who is vilified for leaving Orpheus because "she never saw the humanity in him". Please be serious, what kind of humanity was he supposed to have when he didn't even have a name? Of course, she gave him when he pushed for sex to satisfy his desire and didn't say "no" because she wanted to survive. Technically, she was sexually abused and raped. The audacity of Reia to be like "you could have said no, he would have stopped" because present Orpheus would have done it. Past Orpheus would have been triggered and would have killed Katerina.
TL;DR: Katerina is portrayed as a slutty, greedy ex-girlfriend who willingly fucks the Demon King, accepted all the physical gifts by Orpheus, and then left him because she felt like it when she is the survivor of a horror story. Victim shaming isn't cool. (Her sexual relationship with the Demon King isn't any better, she just deals better with it because he has a higher level of humanity than Orpheus.)

C) Orpheus would have still picked Katerina if Reia wouldn't have been willing to be with him. He's still extremely hung up on her and just picked Reia because she was there and willing. I didn't buy that he loves Reia more than Katerina. The man would need therapy (or a few therapists as snacks to gain wisdom).


As for the romance between Orpheus and Reia: there's no chemistry. He imprints on every human that's with him and pretty much just fell for her because she didn't smell of fear and was willing to touch him. She flees from him and nearly dies in the process? He's angry for some time but quickly forgives her because she touches him. Also, the sex is ... something. Yes, it's monster sex but I wouldn't consider the scenes as good as they are utterly cringy and remind me of some very dark and twisted fan fictions that I might or might not have read. Concerning his size: his entire cock is pretty much over 40cm long (likely longer since he is described as massive and around 220cm tall (without his horns)). Please take a measuring tape and put it against your body to see where the cock would end; it should be directly beneath your breasts. Fun fact: the average length of a vagina is between 6cm - 15cm (depending if it's stimulated or not). If you are wondering how he is fitting his length (the girth is never stated but she can barely grasp it with both hands, so it will be thick) into her: magic. He manipulates her body to take her and it results in such a change that she would never find a human cock fulfilling. 

The world-building is not as swallow as I thought it would be but it isn't as deep as it could be. For the majority of the time, I thought that it played in an apocalyptic USA until it is revealed that humankind never went through the Industrial Revolution and their most developed weapons were swords, bow & arrow etc. In the last third, it is then revealed that the story isn't taking place on planet Earth but happens in an unnamed world that is simply populated by humans. The reveal? The Demon King mentions that the canyon, in which the Veil is, covers 1/4 of the world, which is larger than all canyons on our planet. In the last third, elves are also thrown into the mix and Reia learns in the last chapter what Duskwalkers are, which doesn't help with the world-building. The explanation behind the Duskwalkers' existence is also so anticlimactic.