Book Review: The Fiery Cross (Outlander #5) by Diana Gabaldon

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: Historical fiction romance
Length: 979 pages
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Publisher: Delta
Release Date: November 6th, 2001
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon mesmerized readers with her award-winning Outlander novels, four dazzling tales featuring eighteenth-century Scotsman James Fraser and his twentieth-century time-traveling wife, Claire Randall. Now, in this eagerly awaited fifth volume, Diana Gabaldon continues their extraordinary saga, a masterpiece of pure storytelling that is her most astonishing Outlander novel yet….

The year is 1771, and war is coming. Jamie Fraser’s wife tells him so. Little as he wishes to, he must believe it, for hers is a gift of dreadful prophecy—a time-traveler’ s certain knowledge. Claire’s unique view of the future has brought him both danger and deliverance in the past; her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through the perilous years ahead—or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes.

A MIDDLE BOOK.

First and foremost, I love this series. This book? A bit slow compared to the previous four.

I felt like it took until 600 pages before I was really wrapped up into it. While that’s clearly a long time to wait, It’s still just a book I can listen to and really get into. I like listening to the narrator. I love hearing the story and even when things aren’t as eventful, I enjoy being in the mundane-ness because I love Claire, Jamie, Roger and Bri.

There was a lot of random (to me) love scenes. I don’t inherently have a problem with them, I just personally like them to fit into the story rather than feel like they’re put their for page time. These felt more page time which is what took so long before the drama really started going down.

I liked what The Fiery Cross set up. Getting closer to the Revolutionary War is only going to increase many story lines and plots. There’s plenty of loose ends running around that I’m excited to get to the next book. Especially because one of my FAVORITE characters is back!!

For 1,000 pages I know I should [could?] have a lot more to say, but this series thrives off of keeping things as spoiler-free as possible. Since this is book 5 of 8 (or maybe more now!) I want to keep it brief.

Overall audience notes:

  • Historical fiction / romance
  • Language: some strong throughout
  • Romance: open and closed door scenes throughout
  • Violence: battles, physical, guns, hangings, animal attacks, snake bites, murder

Instagram || Goodreads

Book Review: Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover

GoodeyReads1 Comment

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: New Adult Contemporary romance
Length: 251 pages
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Hoover Ink, Inc.
Release Date: August 19th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Life and a dismal last name are the only two things Beyah’s parents ever gave her. Forced to carve her own path alone, Beyah is well on her way to bigger and better things, thanks to no one but herself.
With only two short months separating her from the future she’s built for herself and the past she desperately wants to leave behind, an unexpected death leaves Beyah with no place to go during the interim.
Forced to call her last resort, Beyah has no other option than to spend the remainder of her summer on a peninsula in Texas with a father she barely knows.
Beyah’s plan is to keep her head down and let the summer slip by seamlessly, but her new neighbor Samson throws a wrench in that plan.
Samson and Beyah have nothing in common on the surface. She comes from a life of poverty and neglect; he comes from a family of wealth and privilege.
But one thing they do have in common is that they’re both drawn to sad things.
Which means they’re drawn to each other.
With an almost immediate connection too intense for them to continue denying, Beyah and Samson agree to stay in the shallow end of a summer fling. What Beyah doesn’t realize is that a rip current is coming, and it’s about to drag her heart out to sea.

NO SURPRISE, I LOVED THIS.

I’m a Colleen Hoover fan for life, this is a fact.

Once again, I’m here with a broken heart, that has been stitched back together by the kind of soul-searching contemporary romance I didn’t know I was craving. This had the lows and highs and all the inbetween.

I adored these characters and felt for them in their struggles and trials. I won’t be able to ever understand the choices and reasons that they made them, and that really pulled on me. Desperation for hope and a step forward had me tearing up. I cared for everyone involved (even the side character) and just felt this entire book.

For Samson and Beyah to have a romance over the summer and for be to not even feel a *twinge* of insta-love is all I ever want in a faster-paced romance. They truly connected and came together in more ways than one. I loved their relationship, and even when it was making me frustrated, I understood, and that’s the important part.

The ending was beautiful and romantic, and I let out the biggest sigh and broke out in a huge smile. For 250 pages, this book will hit you hard, and make everything positive in the end.

Overall audience notes:

  • New adult contemporary romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: kisses / make-outs; a few open door, mild-detailed scenes
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a parent, death by drug overdose, sexual assault and harassment (including that of a minor), extreme poverty

Instagram || Goodreads

Book Review: Harley in the Sky by Akemi Dawn Bowman

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: Young adult contemporary
Length: 384 pages
Author: Akemi Dawn Bowman
Publisher: Ink Road
Release Date: March 10th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Harley Milano has dreamed of being a trapeze artist for as long as she can remember. With parents who run a famous circus in Las Vegas, she spends almost every night in the big top watching their lead aerialist perform, wishing with all her soul that she could be up there herself one day.

After a huge fight with her parents, who continue to insist she go to school instead, Harley leaves home, betrays her family and joins the rival traveling circus Maison du Mystère. There, she is thrust into a world that is both brutal and beautiful, where she learns the value of hard work, passion and collaboration. But at the same time, Harley must come to terms with the truth of her family and her past—and reckon with the sacrifices she made and the people she hurt in order to follow her dreams.

SOME GOOD.

I liked this book. I did, just some main character issues that were hard to continue to look past as the book went on.

Harley was so intensely selfish, the entire book. Everything she did hurt someone around her and she would acknowledge this, but then do nothing to work on changing and growing from her choices. Maybe by the end were some new insights from Harley. By then though, I was over her attitude and her treatment of others.

I did love the circus theme. It’s a small sub-genre I also enjoy. I like the setting and all of the magical acts and characters that come with it. Harley’s coworkers were fun and helped find her footing after she had ran off.

The romance was cute! I enjoyed the slow movement and how it didn’t overtake the story since this wasn’t a romance at its heart. Harley had to learn a lot while she was on her own and did at least get something out of it.

Harley, biracial, often felt disconnected with her cultures and a large family pulling her different ways. I really liked this diversity aspect and conversations she had with herself and others. I loved that by the end she had started to find herself and where she fit in and how she could feel like she was apart of her family.

Overall audience notes:

  • Young adult contemporary fiction
  • Language: some mild
  • Romance: kisses
  • Trigger/Content warnings: some suicide ideation, and discussion of mental health (anxiety and depression)

Instagram || Goodreads

Book Review: The Royal We (Royal We #1) by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ☆☆ 1/2
Audience: Contemporary romance
Length: 454 pages
Author: Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: April 7th, 2015
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

“I might be Cinderella today, but I dread who they’ll think I am tomorrow. I guess it depends on what I do next.”

American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it’s Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain’s future king. And when Bex can’t resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.

Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother, Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick’s sparkling and far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is much thornier and more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he’s fated to become.

Which is how she gets into trouble.

Now, on the eve of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she’s sacrificed for love-her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself-will have been for nothing.

UNIMPRESSED.

We had a pretty good start then things just went downhill.

I liked the beginning. It was cute! Meeting at college, getting to know a new country and being truly on Rebecca’s own (without her twin). I honestly thought this would have been dragged out longer over the course of the book. Mostly because I was leaning towards that being that point of this romance. How they met, fell in-love, etc. What I got was…not what I was expecting.

About halfway is when things sunk, but I was far enough in that I decided to go ahead and finish it out. The Royal We could have easily been 100 pages (at least) shorter. There was an incredible amount of focus on the media. I understand that it plays a big role in all of their lives, but with how much it was discussed it got boring and repetitive. Not to mention the only characters I liked were Cilla and Gaz. And they were side characters.

Not to mention, with the way it ended, I think it as meant to be romantic and spontaneous. What it really portrayed was a relationship with a bunch of band-aids. There wasn’t enough of the romance with Nick and Rebecca having sincere and productive conversations about their difficulties.

I really just struggled with this one for a lot of reasons and I don’t want to continue listing them. This wasn’t the romantic normal girl turns princess trope I was hoping for.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary fiction + romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: kisses / make-outs; a lot of closed door scenes
  • Trigger warnings: loss of a parent, and a parent suffering from mental health issues

Instagram || Goodreads