Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai

I picked up Bitter Medicine thinking it was UF with romance in it, but it was romantic fiction with UF elements. It was also a somewhat odd book, consisting of two uneven parts. First storyline came to a point at around 60% mark. It was ok, even if the romance was very slow-burn with rather odd intimate scenes. If the book had ended there, I might have given it a better rating. Unfortunately, it continued.

The latter part was a meandering mess that didn’t need to be that long; a couple of chapters would’ve sufficed. The conclusion was very unsatisfying. It’s a happily ever after, but at a cost that went against the tropes of fantasy genre, and not in a good way. Kudos for originality, but … no.

Fantasy elements were a mishmash of everything, but mostly western. The description promised xianxia inspired fantasy, but it was inspiration in name only. The main character, Elle, was Chinese, but nothing in her behaviour made me believe it. She was very American in her thoughts and deeds, though incredibly stupid for some reason (she could use a computer but not a smartphone?). For his part, Luc didn’t feel very French, and the Catholic elements seemed really odd.

I was especially disappointed with Elle’s family relations. As a western reader, one thing that makes Asian fiction feel authentic to me, is the idea of duty to one’s family and elders that is very alien to western society. Some lip-service was paid to it here, but in actual dealings with each other, the characters were wholly western. Even the premise was about Elle taking away her brother’s immortality—without his consent, I might add—so that he could escape doing his duty to his family.

Maybe modern Chinese are more western in this respect, but these characters were over a century old and from the heartland of China. If the characters hadn’t been Chinese, the premise would’ve worked. Now it only irked me. As a whole, the book left me unsatisfied both as a romance and as a fantasy.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten starts The Nightshade Crown series (duology, trilogy, I don’t care, I’ll read it all). The world has lost its gods. Five of them have died and one has disappeared and is now worshipped as the one true god, the god of life.

The body of the goddess of death rests underneath the town of Dellaire, heavily guarded. It’s oozing Mortem, a substance of death that needs to be regularly channeled away from humans so that it won’t kill them. Only the priests of the Presque Mort, people who have briefly died, can do it. And then there’s Lore who was born with the ability.

Lore has kept it a tight secret ever since she accidentally resurrected a dead friend when she was a child, as necromancy means a death sentence. So, when she does it again in a very public way, she’s instantly caught by the Presque Mort. But instead of killing her, the head priest—king’s brother—brings her to court and makes her spy on the crown prince, Bastien.

She’s also tasked with figuring out what’s killing a village after a village of people without a trace. Helping her is Gabriel, a Presque Mort and a former childhood friend of the crown prince. But things aren’t what they seem. Lore has no idea who she can trust or who’s pulling the strings behind the scenes. And the cause for the deaths may hit closer than she could’ve imagined.

This was an excellent book. Told in the point of view of Lore, it instantly drew me into its world. Lore was a great character with conflicting interests and a healthy self-preservation instinct. She wasn’t a simpering YA heroine, and she owned her choices, even the questionable ones.

Gabe and Bastien made excellent counterparts to her. Both had troubled pasts and neither was a black and white character, even though Gabe tended to see the world that way. I’m a bit over triangle dramas and I kept hoping the author would veer the romance towards a threesome, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Fingers crossed that’ll change later.

The world, and especially Mortem, was a bit complicated and I’m not sure even the author always knew what she meant it to do. The court drama and the king’s need to spy on his son seemed far-fetched, but there was a reason for that in the end. I was a bit frustrated at times when Lore was slow to figure out things the author all but spelled out to readers, but not so much it would’ve marred my enjoyment. The great showdown that everything built towards came and went a bit fast, but it laid ground for the next book. I’m looking forward to reading it.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Frontier by Grace Curtis: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Frontier by Grace Curtis

Frontier is set in the 29th century Earth. It’s a dry, desolate place that most humanity abandoned several centuries ago to conquer the space. Only a small fraction remained, a religious sect called Gaians who believe in the divinity of goddess Earth. No technology newer than 21st century (for some reason) is allowed and even the talk of space is sin.

Noelle, a scientist, wants to visit earth, the first time in three centuries, for humanitarian and other ideological reasons. With her as a security is Kei, a former army captain who has resigned from her post after a massacre. A romance forms between the women during the six-month travel through space. When they finally reach Earth, everything goes wrong. That’s where the book begins.

Stranger finds herself in a frontier town. She has no idea where she is, but she needs to find someone. For that she needs a communicator. But in the technology averse world, those don’t exist. So she travels, rather randomly, towards the only city where one might exist. On her way, she encounters people who either help her or try to kill her. She changes from Stranger to Courier to Darling, with no name of her own that she would introduce herself with, and no clear indication who she’s looking for, other than her love.

The book consists of encounters that are almost short stories from various points of view. Reader gets a good idea of what the life on Earth, or at least in that small part of it, is like. Some encounters remain one-off, some people appear again just when they’re needed. We don’t get the backstory of the main character until after the half-point, and only then does she get a name and we learn who she’s looking for.

This was a good story, easy to read and interesting. The atmosphere was a bit gloomy, and the main character remained distant, even in the chapters told from her point of view, thanks to the odd decision to not name her or give her any backstory until after the half-point—odd, because the MC really didn’t seem poetic enough to think of herself in terms other than her name. From then on, the book came to life in a whole new way, and Kei became a real person.

The world was interesting, a good combination of space travel and dystopian. But I wasn’t entirely convinced of the logic of the life on Earth. There was no new technology, and everyone seemed to be living on what they grew or scavenged, but there was petrol for 21st century cars—still in use several centuries later—and fabrics for clothes, for example. Only printed books existed, even though people didn’t leave earth until the 24th century—though it was interesting to think that Alexander Dumas and Jane Austen were still read a thousand years after their books were first published. And in three centuries, no one had rebelled and started creating technology that would make life better for everyone. An outsider was needed to save them from the ill-effects of their religion.

I didn’t feel the romance between Kei and Noelle either. They were an uneven pair, and it seemed Noelle only spent time with Kei because there were no other options. For her part, Kei’s devotion to Noelle fit her single-minded character, but not so much that it made a believable character motivation. There was the massacre she felt guilty about; saving her crew to atone herself would’ve been a much stronger reason. Now it went completely unused other than in her reluctance to kill people.

Despite my misgivings, I enjoyed the book. For a debut, it was excellent. It’s a stand-alone with a satisfying ending, but I wouldn’t mind reading more about Kei.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Villains Are Destined to Die vol 1 by Gwon Gyeoeul & SUOL: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Villains Are Destined to Die by Gwon Gyeoeul & SUOL

Villains Are Destined to Die is a transmigration manga where the MC is transported to the game she’s been playing. In the easy mode, she was the heroine winning over the affections of all the men around her. In the hard mode, as Penelope, she dies over and over again, and everyone hates her. Before the player manages to crack the hard mode, she finds herself as Penelope, desperately trying to survive.

This was an excellent story. At first, I was leery of a game where the goal was to win male characters’ affection, but the story turned out to be much darker than these light novels usually are. There was also greater integration between the MC’s backstory and current life than is usual in transmigration stories. I haven’t read the books by Gwon Gyeoeul the manga is based on, but I have a notion the MC deals with her own trauma as the story progresses.

Both Penelope and the person playing her are orphans brought into a rich family, with two older brothers that hate her and a cold, distant father. In her real life, she’d just escaped to an independent life at the university, and now she has to live similar life in a game. The game controls are visible, showing her progress. The only thing missing is the reset button, which she discovers to her horror when she tries to die to get a do-over.

In the first volume, Penelope makes some progress in settling into her new life. It ends with her gaining some affection from four of the five male leads, but she’s a long way from reaching 100%. The fifth guy will show up in the next volume. I’ll be interested in reading more.

The illustrations by SUOL were full colour and beautiful, with the past life depicted in black and white. They were enjoyable to look at and added greatly to the reading experience. Translation was very good.

I received a free copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Conquer the Kingdom by Jennifer Estep: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Conquer the Kingdom by Jennifer Estep

Conquer the Kingdom ends the Gargoyle Queen trilogy, the spin-off of the Crown of Shards trilogy. It had been a while since I read the previous book, but the author brought me right up to speed and I had no trouble following.

Milo, the enemy crown prince, is on the run and Gemma, the princess turned spy, is trying to find him. Failing that, she lures him to her kingdom—but he has a trap of his own. Gemma is forced to truly connect with her magic and her darling gargoyles if she hopes to defeat him.

I enjoyed this book. It was fast-paced and the stakes were high. Gemma’s romance with Leonidas was satisfying and the side characters held their own, even if Gemma overshadowed them in the first person narrative.

The book had a good ending, but it seems the author isn’t done with the world and there is one more queen in the making. Looking forward to reading about her.

I received a free copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.