Reviews and Comments

the_lirazel

the_lirazel@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years, 7 months ago

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Everina Maxwell: Ocean's Echo (Hardcover, 2022, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom)

Rich socialite, inveterate flirt, and walking disaster Tennalhin Halkana can read minds. Tennal, like all …

Review of "Ocean's Echo" on 'Goodreads'

4.5 for my personal enjoyment rounded up because it's so well done.

It's such a joy when a writer you already like gets better with each new book. I can't wait to see what Everina Maxwell does next.

Things this book is about that I am very into:
+ Knowing and being known and how that's scary and also the only thing that matters
+ Mental health and learning to live with your own screwed-up brain
+ Vivid sensory descriptions of weird magic
+ Love being earned through experience and choosing each other and getting to know each other and working together
+ How important it is to disobey orders when the orders are wrong and follow your own principles instead
+ Wow, family is complicated!

Barbara Hambly: The Silent Tower (Windrose Chronicles, Book 1) (Paperback, 1986, Del Rey)

Review of 'The Silent Tower (Windrose Chronicles, Book 1)' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

3.5 stars

I like Hambly's style, I like Joanna and Antryg, I like the aggressively '80s-ness, I like the twisty plot stuff at the end, but there was a long stretch in the middle there where I was just like, "This is fine." So it doesn't quite hit 4 stars. Hoping the next book picks it up.

Patricia C. Wrede: Sorcery And Cecelia Or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot Being The Correspondence Of Two Young Ladies Of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals In London And The Country (2004, Harcourt Brace and Company)

Review of 'Sorcery And Cecelia Or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot Being The Correspondence Of Two Young Ladies Of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals In London And The Country' on 'Goodreads'

Adorable

Max Cutler, Kevin Conley: Cults (2022, Gallery Books)

Review of 'Cults' on 'Goodreads'

2.5 stars

Extremely surface-level and pop-psychology. I guess if you know nothing about cults, this could be on okay 101 introduction.

(Rounded down at least partially because at one point it refers to “William Churchill” leading the UK during WWII. Once again I lament the depths to which the publishing industry has fallen.)

Christine Emba: Rethinking Sex (2022)

For years now, modern-day sexual ethics has held that "anything goes" when it comes to …

Review of 'Rethinking Sex' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

I have a few quibbles (and a general vague feeling of discomfort with some of the things Emba alludes to but doesn't explore) but overall this seemed reasonable to me? Is it really THAT provocative? (Genuine question—this ace girl really doesn’t know.)