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Audioboo Review: The Knight and the Moth, by Rachel Gillig

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I borrowed a copy of Rachel Gillig‘s The Knight and the Moth through Libby for a road trip.

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Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

my review

I really enjoyed this. The heroine was kind, strong, and determined to save herself and everyone else. There were some serious elder daughter vibes going on there. But I did find that she triumphed in ways and moments that she really shouldn’t have. The MMC was wonderful, loyal, and interesting. A little less so after he and the FMC pair up, though. He morphed into a generic perfect boyfriend. Maude and the bat-winged gargoyle were marvelous side characters, the gargoyle especially. He added the humor and comic relief that the story needed. And the world was intriguing, with a subtle kind of magic.

There is a lot to appreciate, but I did find almost everything, even the twist at the end, pretty predictable, and it ends on a cliffhanger. But the narrator,  Samantha Hydeson, did a marvelous job with the narration. It was a pleasure to listen to. 

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🎧 The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig

 

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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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@thebiblioaddict ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 🍄 #thebiblioaddict #fyp #booktok #bookrecommendations #bookreview #escapingwonderland #tiffanyroberts #indieauthorsoftiktok ♬ Blackbird – Acoustic Guitar Revival

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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)