Mini Reviews: ARCs #1

***All of these books were provided to me through Netgalley for free in exchange for a review. I want to thank Netgalley and the authors for this opportunity.***

1. DRAGONFLY MAID- D.D. CROIX

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.


The e-book to this had some formatting issues that made reading it difficult. There were sentences that were repeated (I think due to the formatting). This is nothing against the book itself, as this is a review copy.

D.D. Croix makes you care about the characters and makes you rather invested in what happens to them. The characters all have their own voices and are complex. Jane can be too trusting at times, but overall, I enjoyed reading from her perspective.

The world feels real, and Victorian England has always interested me.

That being said, I don’t feel like the action in the book takes place until I had gotten about 60% into the book. Once the pace of the book picked up though I felt like it progressed nicely. I plan on reading more books in this series.

I want to thank Net Galley for allowing me to review this book!

Places to Buy: Amazon


2. THIS ETERNITY OF MASKS AND SHADOWS- KARSTEN KNIGHT

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Representation: Queer characters, Inuit characters (I’m not sure about how valid the representation is, so you may want to check out Inuit reviewers)

This was an interesting read.

Gods and goddesses walk the Earth, reincarnated every few hundred years. This book follows Cairn, the daughter of Sedna, Inuit goddess of the Sea.

The story follows her as she is trying to discover what, or who killed her mother. She discovers that her mother went on a voyage that ended in unspeakable tragedy and that every member that went on that voyage, one by one, is dying. Cairn with the help of Detective Nanook, Inuit Master of Polar Bears, they try to find who, or what is killing off Gods and Goddesses.

When I first started this, I was worried that it would not keep my attention, but boy was I wrong. This book is a wonderful blend of myth, superhero tale, and urban fantasy. The world here is so similar to our own but the world-building here was amazing.

The characters were all varied and complex and the villain didn’t seem like a caricature either. I would highly recommend this!

Also, there is LGBT rep, and I loved the main couple. The casually queer relationship was so wonderful to read about. It didn’t overtake the story, it just…existed. It wasn’t a main plot point, it was just a part of the characters and who they were. I loved the way that it was done. It wasn’t a struggle to overcome or anything. It was widely accepted and wasn’t questioned.

Places to Buy: Amazon


3. SPRING GIRLS- KAREN KATCHUR

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Another Spring. Another Dead Girl.

This was a thrilling read that followed Detectives Geena and Parker as they attempt to find the serial killer that has been terrorizing their hometown. Every Spring a new body is found in a nearby lake. The killer has come to be known as the Spring Strangler, and his victims? Spring Girls.

This is the third book in the Northampton County mystery series, but it can be read as a stand-alone.

While we get the point of view from the detectives, we also get the point of view from Janey Montgomery, the first victim. The one who survived. The characters were interesting to read from the perspective of. I liked the main characters, which were mainly Geena and Janey. I liked how they interacted together and I liked how Janey handled herself. She was very obviously a victim of a horrific crime and she acted in a way that a victim would act. By the end of the book she was much stronger and was more sure of herself and she had a lot of character growth.

Overall, I enjoyed this. It was certainly thrilling and took some very unexpected twists and turns. The plot kept me engaged and had me on the edge of my seat. It kept me guessing and led to places that I didn’t expect it to.

The conclusion was good and it didn’t pull any punches. Neither was it totally out of left lane. It was like being in a Criminal Minds episode and I would highly recommend it.

Places to Buy: Amazon


4. ODESSA- JONATHAN HILL

Rating: 3 out of 5.

A story about 3 siblings, Virginia, Wes and Harry as they traverse a post apocalyptic United States. Eight years ago, a major earthquake destroyed much of the Western U.S. But, for Vietnamese-American, Virginia Crane, her life changed shortly after the earthquake, when her mother left the family and never returned.

This story follows the siblings years later while they go in search of their mother and meet many other characters along the way.

I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. I expected it to be…more. The bad guys didn’t have any real reason to be bad other than the fact that they just were? Their motivations felt a little non-existent to me. There was more action at the end of the novel, so the rest felt slow moving.

The relationships in here felt like true sibling relationships. They bickered and fought just like siblings do, and they also had some heartwarming moments, which I appreciated.

The art style was okay? It wasn’t for me, but it definitely fits with the narrative of the story and the rough nature of the world that the story takes place in.

It looks like this might be the first book in a series, so there was definitely a lot of set up that is going to lead up to future plot lines. I would be interested to see where this goes.

This book is going to be released November 10th! Pre-order below!

Places to Buy: Amazon


5. THE HOUSE OF STYX- DEREK KÜNSKEN

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Representation: Queer, Trans, Autistic characters

This book was… not for me. Don’t get me wrong, the idea was soooo interesting, but this book could have been 300 pages shorter. It went in LABORIOUS amounts of detail in describing the different things about living on Venus.

The characters were interesting to read about and varied. You really felt for them and wanted them to succeed. A lot of that was hidden behind the fact that I didn’t want to keep reading the long winded text that could have been simplified. That being said, I appreciated that there were some very diverse characters, along with some neuro-divergent characters.

The plot was good, I really wanted the d’Aquillon family to prevail over the “enemy” of the story, but I felt like this was -A LOT- of build up for following stories and I had a lot of periods of being kind of bored throughout reading. That being said, just because I didn’t love this one does not mean that others won’t! If you like family sagas with lots of science and details, you’ll love this one!

This book comes out August 20th! Pre-order below!

Places to Buy: Amazon


These are just some of the ARCs that I’ve had the pleasure of reading over the last few weeks! What are some anticipated reads for you for the months of August and September?

~Cam

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