2022 Book Reviews

Well, I am back. After an unintentional hiatus and four months past the start of the year, I am back writing reviews once more. I will warn that my review posting is likely to be some what sporadic, but I will do my best to update when I can and not madly finishing off what are hopefully some of my last uni assignments in my masters degree. So, without further ado, here are some of the reviews of the books I read in 2022!

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

There's a harp and its very much Scottish inspired, need I say more? I really loved the interactions between the characters and getting to see how they ALL developed throughout the story. Though the book only centres around a few characters, they somehow felt part of a much bigger universe and it was brilliant. Ending on a massive cliffhanger,

I can't wait to read the next book.

Finding Her Edge by Jennifer Iacopelli

Anyone who knows me, will tell you that I LOVE figure skating and even though I grew up as a competitive gymnast, it is the sport of sharp blades and frozen water that I find myself fascinated with as an adult. Needless to say, that when I heard that Jennifer Iacopelli was writing a book about Ice Dance I was incredibly excited, and though this was an enjoyable book, it didn't quite hold up to my high hopes. This book, as a YA romance, is in some ways pretty predicable, girl in love triangle finding herself with feelings for both her skating partner and her ex-skating partner-turned-rival. I won't spoil the ending but suffice to say I guessed pretty early on how it was going to end. Whilst Ardiana's (our main character) relationship with her sisters and father was exceedingly interesting, I did find that it was often glossed over and was there for the purpose to move the story one and create something slightly different to just her burgeoning romances. This book was have been much more interesting if this was explored further but to provided greater substance to the plot but also to build a much more fleshed out character. On the whole though, as a book that I would consider to be 'brain fodder' (aka a quick, enjoyable read that doesn't require too much thinking) it did its job pretty well, and as always, I was very happy to be immersed in the world of figure skating.

House of Blood and Earth and House of Salt and Breath (Crescent City #1 &2) by Sarah J. Maas

I am reviewing these books together because I read that one after the other and admit that in my transportation into Maas' fantastic world, I'm finding it hard to distinguish where the first book ends and the second begins. After an initially slow start, all I can say is omg... Whilst I have enjoyed Maas' other books in the past, I have never quite understood some of the hysteria that surrounded her work, but after reading these two books I might be starting to understand what it is they all love. The more books that I am reading and the longer I am letting these books sit in my memory, the higher they are climbing and are very likely to make themselves on my favourite lists. I will warn that these books are DEFINITELY ADULT and am getting slightly frustrated that these books are still being sold in the YA section at some bookstores. Upon finishing I'm not quite sure how to describe what it is I just read (think a very similar, but more fantastical world than ours with some very intense feelings and emotions), only that I didn't know how much I was going to crave this universe and being part of these character's lives, nor how much my impatience is rising for the third book in the series.