A Deadly Education by. Naomi Novik | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫

Title: A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)

Author: Naomi Novik

Format: eBook (owned)

Pages: 336

Publication Date: 9/29/20

Publisher: Del Rey Books

Categories: Series, Young Adult, Dark Academia, Romance

Lesson One of the Scholomance: Learning has never been this deadly.

A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.

Content Warning: Violence

This one did not work for me even though there were some parts I actually did like about the story.

I like how appropriate the title of this book is. It is a deadly education indeed! I like the tone – there are monsters everywhere, I don’t even see how these kids survive and not a lot do. El is the perfect main character for a place like this school – she is grumpy, sassy, rude, not someone you will like or relate to, definitely not a likable character but she’s smart and aware of her surroundings, she knows how to survive this school, I give her credit for that! Her relationship with Orion the hero of Scholomance is one of my favorite parts. They become reluctant friends, and eventually more than friends but that was the only time the story held onto my interest. I did think the world building is great, a school infested with monsters – sounds pretty crazy and they have to use their magic skills to stay alive and graduate.

What didn’t work for me is we are seriously in El’s head the whole time! This book is only 336 pages and took me 2 weeks or more to finish! 😳 It’s a lot of info dumping and rambling and I could not get through it fast enough. It would have been nice to have more dialogue with other characters. I skipped a lot of her rambling. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Why you should read it:

you are a fan of the author (this was my first book from her)
dark academia – these kids can’t leave the school unless they survive by killing monsters and then graduate!
El and Orion are such an unlikely pair, she’s the grump and he’s the nice guy

Why you might not want to read it:

you are in El’s head a lot, a lot of rambling

My Thoughts:

This did not work for me, I skipped a lot when all I was getting from the book was El’s thoughts. It might have been due to my mood as well because I did love the world building and concept. Also the action parts were great but the rest was just not working for me. I’m not sure if I will continue the series but I am curious to see what happens next.

📚 ~ Yolanda

House of Wolves by. Casey L. Bond | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫

Title: House of Wolves (House of Eclipses, #2)

Author: Casey L. Bond

Format: eBook (kindle unlimited)

Pages: 458

Publication Date: 11/19/21

Categories: Romance, Fantasy, Duology

Hunt the shadow. Guard the flame.

Noor is the new Aten of Helios, having wrenched the kingdom of the sun from her treacherous father’s hands. Citali stood with her sister against him, and rejoiced when he died at Noor’s hand… But he did not go quietly.

He poisoned the thoughts of their older sister, Zarina, who believes that Noor is not who she claims and was never supposed to be Aten. As Zarina flees the temple to determine her next step, she encounters, then attacks, Citali.

Beaten and left for dead, Citali’s cries are heard by the Wolven of Lumina. In a flurry of fur and fang, Beron rushes to her aid yet fears he arrived too late. With what would have been her dying breath, Citali whispers a secret that changes everything.

Pleading to Lumos – the god of the moon – for a way to save her, Beron is provided an answer that comes at a steep price. Citali will become Wolven. The two bonded together for a lifetime. Despite their tumultuous past, Beron helps hone her new strength and senses, a primal passion now surging through her veins. But can the two stop fighting one another and work together to hunt and destroy the darkness spreading over the sands like a plague of locusts? Or will the sands of time run out for them both?

Content Warning:

I hate to say I struggled through this one, but I did and I don’t know if it was a mood reader thing. I enjoyed the first book of this series and then look at the cover of this one? Honestly this series has the best book covers!

I liked that this was from Citali’s perspective because after the cliff-hanger ending from book one, I really wanted to know her story. And we definitely get to know it. Citali goes through a transformation. She was hateful in book one and then we get to know her secrets, her motivations and her past. I started to like her and it was nice seeing her befriending Beron’s pack, Chase and Holt, Beron’s wolves in his pack are so much fun. I’m glad Citali has a found family with Beron and the pack, plus her relationship with Noor grows and strengthens.

The romance is a slow burn…too slow for me. I needed more of Citali and Beron together or more scenes where they have chemistry because he’s a wolf. I was expecting much more between them but in the second half of the book they are mostly separated. And then of course, they are mates…fated mates are such a hit or miss for me. I wanted them to be mates, but I just wanted more intensity between them. Also I wanted more from Beron, I felt like we didn’t learn anything more about him than from what we know from book one.

I’m not sure the part where she separates from Beron and her family worked for me. I felt like it took the story in a direction I wasn’t expecting and I lost interest even though Anubis seemed like a somewhat interesting character. I was afraid it was going to turn into a love triangle, and at the end of the book no less, and I was just not feeling it. It wasn’t a love triangle but still…it seemed like it was going there.

Why you should read it:

Citali’s character growth and transformation
if you like slow burn romances, this one might appeal to you
good world building

Why you might not want to read it:

the romance lacked intensity and chemistry
some characters lacked depth

My Thoughts:

I struggled through this one sadly and took me awhile to read because I kept putting it down. I did enjoy Citali’s journey, but some parts just didn’t work for me and I wish there was more romance. For a duology though, I think it was a good conclusion to the series.

📚 ~ Yolanda

Quotes From the Book

“You deserve to love and be loved in a way that supersedes reason and expectation. That ventures far beyond tradition, and lays outside the bounds of the experiences of others.”
House of Wolves by. Casey L. Bond

The Dating Dare | ARC Review

My Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

Title: The Dating Dare (A Sweet Mess, #2)

Author: Jayci Lee

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 8/3/21

Categories: Romance, Women’s Fiction, Contemporary

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Tara Park doesn’t do serious relationships. Neither does she hop into bed with virtual strangers. Especially when that particular stranger is her best friend’s new brother-in-law. It isn’t an easy decision, though. Seth Kim is temptation personified. His unreasonably handsome looks and charming personality makes him easy on the eyes and good for her ego.

When a friendly game of Truth or Dare leads to an uncomplicated four-date arrangement with Seth, Tara can’t say she minds. But their dates, while sweet and sexy, have a tendency to hit roadblocks. Thankfully, their non-dates and chance meetings get frequent and heated.

Seth is leaving for a new job in Paris in a month and a no-strings attached fling seemed like a nice little distraction for both… But soon Seth realizes that Tara Park doesn’t come in a “nice & little” package–she’s funny and bold, sweet and sexy, and everything he ever wanted and never expected to find. Neither of them are ready for something serious and both have past relationship baggage they’ve been ignoring, but with a shot at forever on the line will they follow their hearts and take a chance on happily-ever-after?

I enjoyed the first book in the series, A Sweet Mess, and wanted to know what happened with Tara, one of the secondary characters. This is her story.
Tara’s personality is vibrant, fun, loud and she runs a brewery with her family. I could relate to her reluctance to fall in love after her past relationship.
The second half of the book was better to me than the first. I did like seeing how both characters was going to embrace their growing feelings for each other. The four dates in the dating dare were cute.
There’s a happy ending where Tara finally puts aside her ex-relationship trauma and goes for Seth and in Paris, no less, the city of romance, so the ending was great.

Triggers: abuse
It’s lust at first sight with Seth and Tara, but they’ve known each other before they get together in this book since Seth’s brother and Tara’s best friend got together in book one. And the lusting is fine, there are some steamy moments in this book but for some reason, it wasn’t doing anything for me. Their passion for one another made me cringe a little – it was evident they really wanted each other, it’s in their thoughts constantly! I skimmed a few of those parts.
Tara’s past with her ex finally affects her in this relationship because she starts to feel something for Seth but I kind of wish we knew more about it in the beginning of the story. It would have made me more invested in this “dating dare”.

This is a light, fluffy romance and a quick read. It’s not my favorite of this romance series so far, but I did enjoy Tara’s character and their happy ending in Paris. I think with less internal dialogue (I get it, you really want to have sex with each other all the time lol) and more exploring of Tara’s past relationship and how it was affecting her, the story would have appealed to me more.

📖 ~ Yolanda

Crave by. Tracy Wolff | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️ 1/2 Stars

Title: Crave (#1)

Author: Tracy Wolff

Format: eBook (borrowed)

Pages: 592

Publication Date: 4/7/20

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Categories: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Vampires, Dragons

My whole world changed when I stepped inside the academy. Nothing is right about this place or the other students in it. Here I am, a mere mortal among gods…or monsters. I still can’t decide which of these warring factions I belong to, if I belong at all. I only know the one thing that unites them is their hatred of me.

Then there’s Jaxon Vega. A vampire with deadly secrets who hasn’t felt anything for a hundred years. But there’s something about him that calls to me, something broken in him that somehow fits with what’s broken in me.

Which could spell death for us all.

Because Jaxon walled himself off for a reason. And now someone wants to wake a sleeping monster, and I’m wondering if I was brought here intentionally—as the bait.

I love vampire books so when I saw this series and it had many reviews I decided to finally read it. Yes the cover is so Twilight-esque but I loved Twilight so I was looking forward to see how different Crave would be. I think this one is different enough that it keep me reading it…until I started skimming it in the end.

I liked the hot, brooding vampire boy Jaxon, of course. He definitely fit that role. I really liked that this one has dragons in it, because usually paranormal stories stick to the usual: vampires, shifters, and witches storyline, but this one has dragons and one in particular named Flint who is so mischievous – love him too.

For the most part I thought the story was interesting because Grace was clueless about the “monsters” – she knows something is up, but she doesn’t really know for sure. The story is written for teens though and I would have devoured this book if I was fourteen. It has the hot guys, the one friend/cousin that Grace has who has her back, it has a villain and boarding school life.

Triggers: violence

I started to skim the last 25% of the book because I was a little over Grace being so hypnotized by Jaxon, which means I think this book could’ve been 200 pages shorter. I get it, Jaxon is hot, he’s a vampire and she loves him. They love each other, a lot and this happens in what…a week? She’s new to the school and missed a few classes because all the events going on so I’m pretty sure it’s insta-love. I don’t mind insta-love but this one made me roll my eyes.

Grace – she is special, we just don’t know why so there’s that trope. But she still needs a lot of saving and they all watch over her because someone is trying to kill her. Her being coddled gets kind of old.

I giggled in so many parts of this book and did the face palm or rolled my eyes so in that way I found it entertaining lol but so many cringe worthy moments.

I can see why people would enjoy this story, I mean it made me laugh because of the cringe moments. It’s filled with many common YA tropes which I actually enjoy. There is the nostalgia aspect and the hot, brooding vampire that I love. I liked the addition of dragons and yes this is an outright, unashamed homage to Twilight, Jaxon even gifts Grace a copy of the book haha. It’s not a series I will be continuing because I think the writing just didn’t hold my attention. It’s definitely a book I would have been very into if I was a young teenager though.

📚 ~ Yolanda