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Book Review: Escaping Wonderland, by Tiffany Roberts

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I received a copy of Tiffany Roberts’ Escaping Wonderland in a monthly Renegade Romance book box.

escaping wonderland coverAlice knows Wonderland is just a virtual world operated inside an asylum to which she’s been wrongfully committed, but she can’t find her way out—can’t find her way back to the life she lived before she woke beneath titanic trees and towering flowers. With the terrifying Red King searching for her and chaos all around, her only hope of escape lies in Shadow, a tall, mysterious being with glowing eyes, sharp claws, and a haunting grin who may be the maddest of them all.

But even if Wonderland isn’t real, her growing feelings for Shadow—and his desire for her—are. Can Alice and Shadow escape Wonderland together, or will she succumb to the madness like everyone else?

my review

Meh, it was merely ok. Shadow was marvelous in all of the ways: noble, loyal, fiercely protective, and brokenly sweet. But everything (and everyone) else in the book was mediocre. The villains were incredibly shallow and cliched, with no discernible motivation beyond being men and therefore power-hungry sexual predators; all played at exactly the same note. There basically weren’t any other women beyond in passing, and it’s inferred that they were all “dollies,” faceless victims, or sex slaves. (As I said, cliched.) Worst of all, Alice was absolutely useless. She just floated through the book, going with the flow and displaying no meaningful agency of her own. Other than inspiring the hero to an act of heroism, she didn’t even participate in her own rescue. I continued reading for Shadow. I was intensely bored by every other aspect of the book.
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Book Review: The Once and Future Queen, by Paula Lafferty

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I received an ARC copy of Paula Lafferty‘s The Once and Future Queen from Between the Chapters Book Club.

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22-year-old Vera is at a waiting tables, grieving her previous relationship, and jogging aimlessly each morning as if toward an uncertain future. Then an odd man shows up at her workplace, insisting that she was once the legendary Queen Guinevere of Camelot, and that her lost memories hold the key to changing both the past and the present. Somehow, it all feels like the direction she’s been looking for. But when she asks the mysterious man to tell her more about Lancelot, Arthur, and a faithless queen, he can only say that much of what she’s heard about Camelot is wrong. The truth, he claims, is something she must see for herself.

After jumping through a portal in Glastonbury’s historic center, Vera is not prepared for what she finds. Magic is everywhere, but a curse on the kingdom means it dwindles every day. She has no idea how to perform a queen’s duties. Her fast friendship with Lancelot sets gossip flowing, and the stranger she must call “husband” often refuses to meet her eye. Arthur is a cold, forbidding, and, while angry to her face, keeps leaving secret tokens of tenderness in her chambers. Worst of all, Vera’s memories—and the answers locked within them—show no signs of returning. If Vera is truly destined to save Camelot, she’ll have to trust her instincts. And her king will have to trust her . . .

my review

The Once and Future Queen is basically a time-traveling isekai or portal fantasy where a modern-day Guinevere leaps back to Camelot, Arthur, Merlin, and all the knights of the to-be round table. It has a lot going for it. Guinevere has a good heart and a genuine desire to right past wrongs. Arthur is every bit as noble as would be expected. Lancelot is rogueish and charming. Merlin is mysterious, Camelot itself hopeful in its infancy, if still smarting from the war.

I liked a lot of the characters. Lancelot and Gawain, especially. But I also hoped for something less YA/NA and therefore more interesting. A lot of the book is just slice-of-life stuff. Characters play and eat, sleep and travel. I was, frankly, bored for a lot of it. Plus, I found that Guinevere simply wasn’t very important in the grand scheme of things. She didn’t actually do much that had any significant effect and wasn’t even necessary to the eventual solution to the magic problem.

The cliffhanger does have me curious what might happen next and how it all might work out. But the boredom left me not invested enough to rush right out to see if there is a book two yet.

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Other Reviews:

Bossy Bookworm: The Once and Future Queen

 

 

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Book Review: The Husky & His White Cat Shizun (#1-2), by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

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I’ve had a copy of the first volume of Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou‘s The Husky & His White Cat Shizun for a couple of years. I purchased it. I then borrowed the second volume from the local library.

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Cruel tyrant Taxian-jun killed his way to the throne and now reigns as the first ever emperor of the mortal realm. Yet somehow, he is unsatisfied. Left cold and bereft, abandoned by all he held dear, he takes his own life…only to be reborn anew.

Awakening in the body of his younger self–Mo Ran, a disciple of the cultivation sect Sisheng Peak–he discovers the chance to relive his life. This time, he vows to attain the gratification that once eluded him: all who defied him will fall, and never again will they treat him like a dog. His greatest fury is reserved for Chu Wanning, the coldly beautiful and aloofly catlike cultivation teacher who betrayed and thwarted Mo Ran time and again in their last life.

Yet as Mo Ran shamelessly pursues his own goals in this life he thought lost, he begins to wonder if there might be more to his teacher–and his own feelings–than he ever realized.

my review

I found the first volume of this slow, and it didn’t really catch my attention. I think mostly because it’s about the characters when they are practically children and…well, meh. I’m just super interested in the goings-on of young teens in training. I mean, yes, this series seems to do some really questionable things with characters’ ages. So, it’s never safe to take a character at their given age at any one point in the story. So maybe it’s not entirely accurate to say it’s about children, but this first volume felt like it was.

And yes, to address the ‘questionableness,’ there are definitely adult ‘impure thoughts’ about people who are too young at any given point. But with the twisty, time and timeline-skipping plot, it goes in every mutual direction. So it becomes easy enough to ignore (or forget) current ages and set the problems aside.

But still, I was a bit bored by the first volume. However, people like the series so very much,  and I did like the characters. Plus, with 11 books, there is plenty of room for it to pick up. So, I moved on to book two.

Book two, I found a lot more engaging. It’s still about characters who are child-aged (some have gotten a little older and some much younger, but the two main ones have adult reasoning, no matter what age their bodies are at). However, the plot thickened and got more interesting.  More importantly, I’ve become attached to Mo Ran and Chu Wanning.

The two couldn’t communicate their way out of a paper bag, and it’s kind of frustrating. They’re both kind of dumb, Mo Ran especially. But they’ve endeared themselves to me, and I’m interested in seeing them succeed, finding out who the villain is—I have a guess—and what their plan is.

Unfortunately, my library only has the first two books, and as I’m trying to clear shelf space, I can’t see myself buying the next 9 books in the series at the moment. So, I won’t be continuing at this point in time. But if I can borrow any more of the series somewhere, I’ll more than happily read it.

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Danmei Review: THE HUSKY AND HIS WHITE CAT SHIZUN Vol 1 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou, Rynn (Translator), st (Illustrator), ＪＵＮ (Translator)