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ARC Book Review: Gate to Kagoshima (Ancestor Memories #1) by Poppy Kuroki

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Historical Romance (Time Travel)
Length: 320 pages
Author: Poppy Kuroki
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: January 28th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

In this exciting historical romantasy in the spirit of The Hurricane Wars and The Time Traveler’s Wife—Outlander set in Japan—a young Scottish woman is magically transported to the last Samurai era, where she encounters ghosts from the past, her own Japanese ancestry, and a love that transcends time.

While in Japan researching her family’s history, a vicious typhoon sends Isla Mackenzie 128 years back in time, to the dawn of the Satsuma Rebellion. There she meets her ancestors, and a charismatic samurai, Kei, with whom she unexpectedly finds romance.

But, unlike her Beloved, Isla knows about the looming Samurai rebellion—and Kai’s fate. Should she attempt to change history or somehow make her way back to the life she’d had before?

Compulsively readable, historically grounded, and irresistibly immersive, Gate to Kagoshima is an unforgettable tale of duty, and of timeless love.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ARC and LibroFM for the audiobook.

I’LL READ BOOK TWO.

And sometimes that’s the best review I have. I also think the audiobook did a great job of upping my thoughts on this book. I was able to breeze through it quickly and the narrator did an amazing job.

This is definitely in the Outlander vibe but less wide scale. I was surprised at how short this book was and how much history it was trying to cover at the same time. I loved the historical aspects though and learning more about samurai’s and the culture of the time period.

The romance took a bit for me to get behind and I think it could have used a few more romantic notions buuut the ending scenes were super good. They very much increased my desire to read book two and see how this will continue to progress.

Overall audience notes:

  • Historical Romance
  • Language: low
  • Romance: vague open door
  • Violence: moderate

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Book Review: Brisingr (The Inheritance Cycle #3) by Christopher Paolini

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Fantasy
Length: 748 pages
Author: Christopher Paolini
Publisher: Knopf
Release Date: September 20th, 2008
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Oaths sworn… loyalties tested… forces collide.

It’s been only months since Eragon first uttered “brisingr”, an ancient language term for fire. Since then, he’s not only learned to create magic with words — he’s been challenged to his very core. Following the colossal battle against the Empires warriors on the Burning Plains, Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have narrowly escaped with their lives. Still, there is more adventure at hand for the Rider and his dragon, as Eragon finds himself bound by a tangle of promises he may not be able to keep.

First is Eragon’s oath to his cousin, Roran: to help rescue Roran’s beloved from King Galbatorix’s clutches. But Eragon owes his loyalty to others, too. The Varden are in desperate need of his talents and strength — as are the elves and dwarves. When unrest claims the rebels and danger strikes from every corner, Eragon must make choices — choices that will take him across the Empire and beyond, choices that may lead to unimagined sacrifice.

Eragon is the greatest hope to rid the land of tyranny. Can this once simple farm boy unite the rebel forces and defeat the king?

BEST SO FAR.

I felt like I was actually interested in what was happening finally. Book two was kind of a slog for me so I’m glad that this one picked up. I like what’s happening with Eragon. I absolutely adore Saphira and the story is really amping up to an intense finale.

I love having Roran’s POV too. It really adds to the story and getting more sides of everything. There were many intense moments and this had a lot of those hallmark older fantasy plot lines that feel nostalgic and enjoyable to read.

The audiobooks for this series are great and I can’t wait to continue the series!

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Fantasy
  • Language: very little
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: high

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Book Review: Where the Black Line Ends by Meagan Williamson

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 332 pages
Author: Meagan Williamson
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: October 29th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Reed Morgan thrives on chasing adventure. It’s why he doesn’t hesitate when he lands a spot on a mid-season wildland firefighting crew in the Payette National Forest. It’s the perfect opportunity for the guy who just lost the love of his life to his best friend and whose family rarely notices him. It’s not exactly diving out of airplanes, but it’s miles away from the opposite gender. Or so he thought.

Hailey Hart has spent her entire life seeking the approval of her father—a man married to his job. When the chance to work alongside his fire crew arises, she jumps at it. If he can see her as the EMT her mom once was, maybe he’ll finally give her the time of day.

After Reed and Hailey share a memorable first encounter on an airplane, they find themselves working together. They have two months to gain the trust and admiration of the one person they are both seeking approval from—the Iron Summit Superintendent. Neither one of them has time for a distraction.

But some wildfires start unexpectedly. And theirs is proving hard to put out.

VERY MUCH ENJOYED.

I feel like that sums it up really well. It was just a solidly good book. I had some minor hang-ups but I feel like I learned quite a bit about wildland firefighting and loved these characters too.

The setting was cool. I liked that it was basically in one location that provided a lot of forced proximity and moments for Reed and Hailey to interact. They had a good spark from the beginning and I thought the chemistry was well maintained.

Reed bugged me just a little bit because I feel like he wasn’t serious enough (and my personality was clashing so hard and shouting IT’S NOT TIME FOR JOKES) but I digress. And I think a little more background was needed with Hailey’s backstory too. We got a bunch of flashback chapters and moments that HELPED but I felt like I was still missing something.

Any who, truly good read. Hit on the emotional front too with the last 25%??! I liked the writing style and look forward to reading more books by this author.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: mild
  • Romance: vague/brief open door
  • Violence: mild
  • Content Warnings: dangerous fire based situations, loss of life, loss of a parent (recounted)

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Book Review: The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by H.G. Parry

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Rating: ★★★★
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 464 pages
Author: H.G. Parry
Publisher: Orbit Books
Release Date: October 22nd, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the author of The Magician’s Daughter comes The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door, a mythic, magical tale full of secret scholarship, faerie curses, and the deadliest spells of all—the ones that friends cast on each other.

All they needed to break the world was a door, and someone to open it.

Camford, 1920. Gilded and glittering, England’s secret magical academy is no place for Clover, a commoner with neither connections nor magical blood. She tells herself she has fought her way there only to find a cure for her brother Matthew, one of the few survivors of a faerie attack on the battlefields of WWI which left the doors to faerie country sealed, the study of its magic banned, and its victims cursed.

But when Clover catches the eye of golden boy Alden Lennox-Fontaine and his friends, doors that were previously closed to her are flung wide open, and she soon finds herself enmeshed in the seductive world of the country’s magical aristocrats. The summer she spends in Alden’s orbit leaves a fateful mark: months of joyous friendship and mutual study come crashing down when experiments go awry, and old secrets are unearthed.

Years later, when the faerie seals break, Clover knows it’s because of what they did. And she knows that she must seek the help of people she once called friends—and now doesn’t quite know what to call—if there’s any hope of saving the world as they know it.

Thank you to Orbit Books for the gifted ARC.

GREAT READ.

I enjoyed this one a lot and highly recommend the audiobook format for picking it up. I loved the narrator and it had such a great story telling quality that was really engaging from the get go. I loved the plot set-up and watching the slow build of Clover’s character.

The middle did fall off a bit and things dragged around as some of the mundane life aspects were happening without the plot changing. But I liked the complicated dynamic and relationship between all of these college students and how the force of time and circumstances changed everything.

At least the ending brought things back around and I liked how it all came together. It’s a truly solid standalone that wraps up the story lines in a satisfactory way. I admittedly would have loved a little more romance or at least generation of chemistry between one pair but that’s alright.

Overall audience notes:

  • Historical Fantasy
  • Language: mild
  • Romance: one closed door
  • Violence: moderate

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