Ricky Pine's Blog, page 20

Review: Lore of the Wilds

Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Got this romantasy rec from a friend in Z Brewer’s Minion Horde Discord server. It’s not my favorite in the genre, but it’s a nice touch to see a Black-led story of humans and Fae and a secret library that gives all the Beauty and the Beast vibes better than anything SJM ever did. (Not April Foolin’, even though that was yesterday, but whatever. I said what I said.) Lore herself is a very engaging protagonist ...

Review: Making It So: A Memoir

Making It So: A Memoir by Patrick Stewart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I guess I’ve been on a slight celebrity memoir kick lately, having read Geddy Lee’s My Effin’ Life over Christmas, and now this memoir from Sir Patrick Stewart. Though there’s much to be said about his star-making role as Picard (my first and favorite Star Trek Captain), he wouldn’t be the great legend we know today if not for his humble beginnings in a working class family in Yorkshire (trigger warning...

Review: Empire of the Damned

Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Bloodydamn goryhell, Mister Kristoff.

Baise-moi le visage.

You've done it again. You love your readers, but you love breaking their hearts even more, and now, two and a half years on from the start of your darkest and most epic trilogy yet, it's never been as clear as it is now.

While some reviewers have complained that this book has a bit of middle-book syndrome and Sophomore Slump, and it's not an entirely unfo...

Review: Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White

Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White by Amélie Wen Zhao
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's such good fortune that despite the ridiculous Book Twitter attempts to cancel her career before it even got started (the North remembers, as does Pepperidge Farm, and so do I), Zhao now has two completed fantasy series under her belt. I was more than a bit surprised to see that she decided to go with the duology route in this one, but after reading this book, I can see where she made it w...

Review: Fate Breaker

Fate Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Aveyard has finished two series to date, but this one, for the first time, really and truly feels like it's all come to an end. To be fair, War Storm had a very open ending, and while Broken Throne had short story epilogues, I'm still dying for Aveyard to return to that story world with the promise of a new follow up series about the War of Red Thunder.

But here, in the last of Aveyard's YA-in-marketing-only epic f...

Review: The Spear Cuts Through Water

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This one unfortunately is a classic case of not only "interesting premise but poor execution," but also "just not for me." I wanted to like this one, but when the book immediately launches into a long winded second person POV narrative (which is historically off putting for a reason; I'm still surprised to this day I managed to read N.K. Jemisin's entire Broken Earth trilogy, but then at least she did...

Review: Most Ardently

Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gabe Cole Novoa's been hyping up this book for a while, and it's a pretty sharp departure from his past work because it's the first non-speculative fiction book he's published. No sci-fi, no fantasy, and by his own admission, no magic...but definitely he's still got his usual gifts of unexpectedly twisty romance well in hand as he contributes to Feiwel & Friends's lineup of Remixed Classics. This gender-bending ta...

Review: All This Twisted Glory

All This Twisted Glory by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Last year, when I read the second book of Tahereh Mafi's current series, I expected that that book was the middle of a trilogy - hadn't it been announced as such at first? But since then, Mafi not only announced that this new book would not be the end of the series after all, but that she's planning as many as five books total in the series. Now, as much as I love Mafi's work, and she's never losing her posi...

Review: Sky's End

Sky's End by Marc J. Gregson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For this hella hyped new series opener, I'm going to give it a 3.5 rounded up to a 4. Other reviewers have pointed out how much this book is a throwback to the YA dystopian boom of the 2010s, combining a lot of well known stylistic hallmarks - a protagonist joining one of a large number of postapocalyptic factions, a certain fascination with the number twelve in the structure, first person present tense narrative, and...

Review: The Atlas Maneuver

The Atlas Maneuver by Steve Berry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not my favorite, but still a far better Atlas-titled book than any of Olivie Blake's BookTok overhype.

(There, I said it.)

Cotton Malone's back again, and this time, taking on a bizarre multipronged conspiracy to hack the world's economy with a combination of lost Japanese World War II gold and conning numerous countries around the world into adopting bitcoin as legal tender. Sure, this book already feels a bit da...